Health Services Research Methods: A Guide to Best Practice

Optimum health care based on sound scientific evidence demands the use of the best research methods available.
Health Services Research Methods is based on the most wide ranging review ever conducted. Commissioned by the British National Health Service Health Technology Assessment Programme, leading experts have compiled systematic reviews of all the available scientific evidence in major research areas including:

Non–randomised studies
Outcome measurement
Randomized trials
Statistical methods
Area level analysis
Economic evaluation
Qualitative methods
Synthesising evidence.
The chapters based on these reviews are a distillation of the most up to date information that everyone involved in health services research should have. Each one provides practical recommendations, and the research evidence is illustrated by case studies. Health care researchers from those in primary care to those in specialized fields will find this a highly readable and practical guide to the approaches they should be taking.

Spis treści:
Contributors.
Foreword.
1.Researching health services.
Part one: measurement of benefits and costs.
2.Patient–assessed outcome measures.
3.The use of health–related quality of life measures in economic evaluation.
4.Collecting resource use data in clinical studies.
5.Designing and using patient and staff questionnaires.
Part two: Methods of evaluating health care.
6.Choosing between randomised and non–randomised studies.
7.Comparison of effect sizes derived from randomised and non–randomised studies.
8.Factors that limit the number, quality, and progress of randomised trials.
9.Ehics of randomised trials.
10.Implications of sociocultural contexts for ethics of randomised trials.
11.Evaluation of health care interventions at area dn organisation level.
12.Qualitative methos in health services research.
Part three: Statistical methods.
13.Statistical methods: good practice and identifying opportunities for innovation.
14.An introduction to bayesian methods in health services research.
15.Quality of life aassessment and survival data.
Part four: Presenting, interpreting, and synthesising evidence.
16.Systematic reviews of randomised trials.
17.Handling uncertainty in economic evaluations of health care interventions.
18.Consensus development methods for creating clinical guidelines.
Part five: Future developments.
19.Horizon scanning: early identification of new health care technologies.
20.Evaluating new and fast–changing technologies.
21.Research implementation methods.
Appendices.
I What does "systematic" mean for reviews of methods?.
Ii Different types of systematic review in health services research.
Index

Okładka tylna:
Optimum health care based on sound scientific evidence demands the use of the best research methods available.
Health Services Research Methods is based on the most wide ranging review ever conducted. Commissioned by the British National Health Service Health Technology Assessment Programme, leading experts have compiled systematic reviews of all the available scientific evidence in major research areas including:

Non–randomised studies
Outcome measurement
Randomized trials
Statistical methods
Area level analysis
Economic evaluation
Qualitative methods
Synthesising evidence.
The chapters based on these reviews are a distillation of the most up to date information that everyone involved in health services research should have. Each one provides practical recommendations, and the research evidence is illustrated by case studies. Health care researchers from those in primary care to tho se in specialized fields will find this a highly readable and practical guide to the approaches they should be taking.