Health services research
Health services research is a sub-area of health system research that lies at the interface between clinical research, public health research and health economics .
At the micro level of the health system, health services research relates in particular to hospitals , medical practices or individual technologies in the health system .
Research items
The subject of health care research is health care. Other factors such as the intermediary institutions ( health insurance companies , medical associations, etc.) and the national health policy , which have a long-term influence on this care, are not directly the subject of research. However, they are included in the scientific investigation as the framework for specific health care.
Under medical care the care, maintenance, diagnosis, treatment and aftercare is understood an ill person by medical and non-medical personnel under socially legitimized institutions of health care. This includes all medical and non-medical institutions that can bill for their services through statutory health insurances and private health insurances. Health care is divided into medical care and psychosocial care. The term health care is broader and includes not only all forms of health care, but also all forms of individual-centered prevention and health promotion that are provided by medical and non-medical institutions.
From a scientific point of view, health care research is defined as basic and problem-oriented, interdisciplinary research that describes health care and its framework conditions, explains it causally and, based on this, develops care concepts, researches their implementation and evaluates them under everyday conditions.
Typical questions
Examples of questions in health services research are
- the benefits of new diagnostic methods,
- the correct use of new and old drugs and vaccines,
- the use of medical aids (e.g. cures, devices) in the practice and their risks,
- the economic advantages and disadvantages of treatment with drugs, vaccines and physical measures (cures, diets),
- the question of cost-saving reuse of medical devices and
- unjustified differences in care
The latter issue was unpopular in Germany for a long time, in 2011 there were but three different organizations approaches to create transparency: Only the published Central Research Institute of Ambulatory Health Care to supply Atlas , the Bertelsmann Foundation the facts check health and finally the Scientific Institute of the AOK the Hospital Report 2012 with a focus on regionalization.
literature
- Monika Hey, Ulrike Maschewsky-Schneider (Eds.): Course book health care research . Med. Wiss. Verl.-Ges., Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-939069-12-6 .
- Friederike Höfel (Ed.): Health Services Research Insights, Examples and Actors. Schattauer Verlag, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-7945-6971-7 .
- Christian Janßen, Bernhard Borgetto, Günther Heller (eds.): Medical sociological health care research: theoretical approaches, methods, instruments and empirical findings . Juventa, Weinheim / Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7799-1148-7 .
- Holger Pfaff , Edmund A. Neugebauer, Gerd Glaeske, Matthias Schrappe (eds.): Textbook Healthcare Research : Systematics - Methodology - Application . Schattauer, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-7945-2797-7 .
- Cornelia Trittin (Ed.): Healthcare research between routine data, quality assurance and patient orientation , series of publications on health analysis by the Barmer GEK , Volume 36, Asgard Verlagsservice GmbH, Siegburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-946-19900-7
Web links
- German Network Health Services Research
- Center for Health Services Research Cologne
- Health Services Research Germany Database
- Institute for Medical Sociology, Health Services Research and Rehabilitation Science, University of Cologne
- Unwarranted Variation (English WP)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article by David Klemperer (PDF file; 284 kB)
- ^ Website of the supply atlas
- ^ Website health fact check
- ↑ Abstracts of the Hospital Report 2012 ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 120 kB).
- ↑ Regional differences in supply (PDF file).
