How can Health Services Research contribute to assessing fads and fashions in health policy and practice?
5 th Health Services & Policy Research Conference
2-5 December 2007, Auckland
Attended by Libby Kalucy, PHC RIS
The way that policy makers use and interact with health services research was one of the insights I gained from attending this stimulating conference. Policy makers valued long term relationships with specific researchers whom they had learned to know and trust, with whom they could exchange ideas, ask questions in confidence, and who could understand their business. They valued arrangements such as the Cooperative Research Centre in Aboriginal Health (CRCAH) which provides a network of policy makers from OATSIH and State health core partners, providers, communities, and researchers. One policy maker considered the CRCAH made it possible to benefit time and again from research input, even though the research was not directly funded each time by the Department. When long term relationships were established, such multiplication of benefit was very efficient and effective.
Richard Osborn (an NHMRC Research Fellow) gave the other side of such relationships. He was willing to talk to anyone anytime about his research, which involves a strong partnership between different sectors. His approach consists of visiting a succession of directors in the relevant branch of DoHA, emailing them about interesting preliminary or complete results, and generally keeping up the conversations and contacts even though the bureaucrats were in their positions for relatively short lengths of time.
Karen Davis from the Commonwealth Fund emphasised the importance of health service researchers anticipating the issues on which data will be needed in the short and medium term. Such issues include the ‘patient medical home' concept, and redesign and workforce strategy in primary care. The role of incentives in changing and sustaining the behaviour of providers and consumers is another area where research is needed. All of these are amenable to policy, with opportunities to learn from other countries despite the variation in their contexts.
See <http://chsrp.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/health/conference2007/presentations.php> for conference presentations.
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