Diversity in clinical guidelines: the role of repertoires of evaluation

Clinical practice guidelines are one of the main tools by which clinicians, policy makers and patients hope to make health care less variable, more reliable and efficient, but there is little understanding of the processes by which clinical guidance is put together by guideline groups. This paper describes the social organisation of knowledge within clinical practice guideline development processes by drawing on the sociology of situated judgement. Two guideline development processes were observed, and the development group meetings (N = 21) recorded and analysed qualitatively. Data analysis suggested that clinical guidance comes to existence through the combination of repertoires of evaluation, organised around four different epistemic criteria: robustness, usability, acceptability and adequacy. This research provides a detailed and layered understanding of the knowledge dynamics involved in developing recommendations for appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstance.     

Research on organizational issues in health care social work

A rich body of knowledge spans organizational topics relevant to the practice, conceptual development and planning of social work health care services. At a time when health care organizations are experiencing major changes in their structure and financing; organizational research informs both the system adjustments and leadership which social work can offer the health care field. Organizational research on health care social work is grouped into three categories: management and administrative issues; interprofessional and interorganizational relations; and service delivery topics. Within each category, the major issues are presented with single site and multi-site research reviewed. Recommendations to improve the contributions of this body of research include greater attention to methodological rigor in designing and implementing research projects.     

Involving older people in research: methodological issues

The policy imperative to increase public participation in health and social care research, planning and service delivery raises significant questions about optimum approaches, methods and the extent to which this policy can influence change in practice. This paper highlights the key policy literature on user involvement and participatory research methods to establish the context for a partnership research project exploring perceptions of risk in relation to falls from the perspectives of older people, carers, and health and social care professionals. The paper reports the methods used in developing user involvement in the research at a number of levels, including project management, and a consumer panel working alongside the research team and influencing the dissemination in local falls prevention strategies. The authors draw out the issues related to the context and method of involvement, and discuss the impact on research quality and local service development in health and social care.     

精神卫生与社会发展整合的理论与实践

许多中低收入国家对精神卫生区别对待,将其作为一种专业性的卫生政策。尽管全球精神卫生工作取得重大进展,但与之有关的政策和实践与社会发展整合的程度有限,并且往往落后于全球更广义的卫生发展。这种差距的出现是由于忽略了社会发展对精神卫生服务的影响,而这种影响既可能是积极的,也可能是消极的。本文旨在分析当前精神卫生需要克服的一系列理论和实践挑战,探索富有成效的社会发展和精神卫生整合的政策。从理论角度出发,本文力求证明社会发展与精神卫生模式之间存在兼容性,能力方法可以为精神卫生和社会发展整合提供框架。然而,近期有关幸福能力导向的言论一直在讨论精神卫生所带来的潜在危害性后果。有关政策和实践部分,本文建议采用横向和纵向整合战略。横向战略需要精神卫生与初级卫生保健相结合,精神卫生服务的提供与服务包的扩展更加统一。纵向整合是指精神卫生与其它相关政策领域（尤其是社会、经济和政治领域）之间的结合。精神卫生的实证研究强调了社会发展理论的诸多方面可以在某种形式上对其实践产生影响：一是避免那些受心理疾病影响或存在患病风险的弱势人群遭到排斥;二是强调了执行过程是成功政策的重要组成部分;三是通过聚焦个人,尽力避免社会发展中的不均衡。     

Health for all through research.

John F. Kennedy's vision of man on the moon by the year 1970 set a goal for technological research and development. The World Health Organization's vision of health for all by the year 2000 set a similar goal not only for health policy but also for health research. Drawing on the analogy between these goals, this paper first explores what health for all means as a policy goal. It calls for changes in most aspects of the health care system. In the European Region of the World Health Organization, 38 specific targets show how approaches to health problems, lifestyles, environment, health care and various support measures (e.g., planning, management and training) should be changed to reach the over-all goal. These changes should be based on sound scientific knowledge. Health for all therefore also calls for a health research policy and reorientation of research. The second part of the paper looks at the research implications of health for all. Assisted by the Regional Office of the World Health Organization, the European Advisory Committee for Health Research analysed the 38 targets to see what kind of research would help to achieve them. The result of this analysis were two publications: "Research Policies for Health for All" and "Priority Research for Health for All". The first volume explains why a country needs a health research policy. The second one identifies, target by target, research necessary to reach them. Translated into several languages, they have begun to influence national research policies. The third section of the paper describes the research priorities identified in the two research for health for all volumes. It also aims at showing their relevance for the European health research community. It finally discusses the prerequisites that the countries have to set up to make research for health for all possible. They include changes in the incentives for and financing of research, personnel development, research organization and communication between the researchers and decision-makers.     

Health technology assessment in its local contexts: studies of telehealthcare

Health technology assessment (HTA) is one of the major research enterprises of late modernity, reaching into fields of previously autonomous professional practice, and critically interrogating the organisation and delivery of health care. The 'evaluation' of new health technologies within the field of HTA is increasingly a normative political expectation, as discourses of 'evidence-based' practice run through health policy in the UK and elsewhere. Despite its importance in governing the direction of innovation in health care delivery, there are hardly any empirical studies of HTA in practice. In this paper, we draw on two ethnographic studies of telehealthcare implementation and evaluation in the UK to explore the practical conduct of HTA, and we focus specifically on the social organisation and conduct of randomised controlled trials of these new technologies. The paper examines how evaluation forms a mediating set of practices that make the embedding or normalisation of a new technology possible; and present a simple model of the social and technical contingencies within the evaluation process.     

Beginn der Routinephase Gesundheitsberichterstattung des Bundes

The federal German health reporting system, financed by the Federal Ministry of Health, is monitoring the status of health, health behaviour, risk factors, health care utilisation, costs and resources of the health care system on the national level. The health reports offer action-oriented information on health related topics and provide a scientific basis for health policy decisions. This paper gives an overview on upcoming topics of the health report and briefly describes how the health reporting system is organised by the Robert Koch-Institute. Beside the health monitoring on national level the federal health reporting system co-operates with other health reporting systems on sub- and international level.     

中国医药卫生体制改革与中国卫生政策研究类型

中国医药卫生体制改革处于总体制度框架设计与改革发展模式选择的关键时刻，改革发展实践迫切需要卫生政策研究。卫生政策研究质量决定卫生改革的成败。卫生政策研究在医药卫生制度框架设计、发展模式选择、体制改革实践、卫生保健体系创新、医院质量管理和构建和谐医患关系等工作中扮演基础性和核心角色，发挥举足轻重的作用。本文简要论述医药卫生体制改革与卫生政策研究关系，介绍中国卫生政策研究的基本类型。     

Health sector structures: the case of Belgium

In Belgium, the formal framework of health care is a composite of public and private practice forming a policy that is the product of negotiation between differing power groups. An inter-university and inter-disciplinary research and development project was set up in 1974 by the Government, in order to inform and prepare a primary health care (PHC) policy. A preliminary evaluation of the project shows that it made major contributions to the development of an acceptable framework of PHC, to political, professional and lay support for PHC, to the development of organizational models for PHC, and to an increase of research capability within PHC. Overall, the project is a clear demonstration that research can be a strategic agent for innovation.     

The concepts of community care and primary care in the UK: the 1960s to the 1990s

The concepts of community care and primary care in UK health policy have emerged over a number of decades. This paper uses historical methods to investigate the changing definitions of community care and primary care in health policy since the 1960s. It draws on published primary and secondary sources including government documents, journals and the professional press. While policy makers have tended to separate community and primary care, the roles of the professions have tended to cut across the two sectors. The emergence and substantially separate development of the two concepts in policy and professional practice between 1960 and 1990 is described and analysed, illustrating the structural constraints on integration but noting the increasing tendency for the boundaries to be called into question. The second part of the paper examines the impact of the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act, the implementation of reforms during the 1990s and the policies currently being implemented by the Labour government. Community care and primary care have continued to be treated separately in the minds of policy makers. Policy for the former has been largely driven by governments' concern to control social security and NHS spending, whilst primary care policy largely focused on the role of general practitioners (GPs) in implementing market reforms. The new Labour government has put renewed emphasis on public health and reducing fragmentation, stressing partnership and cooperation. But the continued dominance of general practice in primary care policy may continue to be an obstacle to the integration of community care and primary care.     

卫生项目政策简报撰写的方法与技巧:以中英全球卫生支持项目(GHSP)为例

卫生项目是开展国际卫生合作、落实一国卫生发展目标、任务的重要载体和平台,在推进全球卫生战略、深化医药卫生体制改革中发挥着重要的作用。政策简报是一种相对较新的为决策人员提供打包研究证据的工具,能够实现快速传递信息、交流经验、促进实施等目的。本文以中英全球卫生支持项目(Global Health Support Program,GHSP)为例,就卫生项目政策简报的功能特点、撰写要求、写作技巧等进行阐述,以帮助各级卫生管理人员掌握政策简报撰写的一般程序和方法,促进政策简报这一有效工具在我国医药卫生各领域得到更好的应用和发展。     

Educating the future workforce: building the evidence about interprofessional learning

This paper addresses the theme of interprofessional education for health and social care professionals as it affects the development of the workforce. The drivers for change in the UK, typified by the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Victoria Climbié inquiries and the response to these in the form of Department of Health policy, are discussed. The need for rapid development of the evidence base around this subject is evident from literature reviews of the impact of interprofessional education. Directions for future research and investment in this area are proposed, including the need for a stronger theoretical base and for longitudinal studies over extended periods of time in order to examine short, medium and long-term outcomes in relation to health care practice.     

Framing the Issues: Moral Distress in Health Care

Moral distress in health care has been identified as a growing concern and a focus of research in nursing and health care for almost three decades. Researchers and theorists have argued that moral distress has both short and long-term consequences. Moral distress has implications for satisfaction, recruitment and retention of health care providers and implications for the delivery of safe and competent quality patient care. In over a decade of research on ethical practice, registered nurses and other health care practitioners have repeatedly identified moral distress as a concern and called for action. However, research and action on moral distress has been constrained by lack of conceptual clarity and theoretical confusion as to the meaning and underpinnings of moral distress. To further examine these issues and foster action on moral distress, three members of the University of Victoria/University of British Columbia (UVIC/UVIC) nursing ethics research team initiated the development and delivery of a multi-faceted and interdisciplinary symposium on Moral Distress with international experts, researchers, and practitioners. The goal of the symposium was to develop an agenda for action on moral distress in health care. We sought to develop a plan of action that would encompass recommendations for education, practice, research and policy. The papers in this special issue of HEC Forum arose from that symposium. In this first paper, we provide an introduction to moral distress; make explicit some of the challenges associated with theoretical and conceptual constructions of moral distress; and discuss the barriers to the development of research, education, and policy that could, if addressed, foster action on moral distress in health care practice. The following three papers were written by key international experts on moral distress, who explore in-depth the issues in three arenas: education, practice, research. In the fifth and last paper in the series, we highlight key insights from the symposium and the papers in the series, propose to redefine moral distress, and outline directions for an agenda for action on moral distress in health care.     

Beyond medical care: how health systems can address children's needs through health promotion strategies

This paper describes an innovative approach that integrates community-based health promotion and disease prevention into a well-established pediatric medical care system. System components include a population-level focus in multiple service sectors, community coalitions, knowledge dissemination, and social marketing. The combination of these components is intended to bring about widespread changes in health/social policy and professional practice, which, in turn, should improve health behavior and outcomes. Early lessons are discussed.     

Health policy issues and applications for evidence-based medicine and clinical practice guidelines

Evidence-based medicine and clinical practice guidelines have become increasingly salient to the international health care community in the 1990s. Key issues in health policy in this period can be categorised as costs and access to care, quality of and satisfaction with care, accountability for value in health care, and public health and education. This paper presents a brief overview of evidence-based medicine and clinical practice guidelines and describes how they are likely to influence health policy. Evidence-based medicine focuses on the use of the best available clinical (efficacy) evidence to inform decisions about patient care; guidelines are statements systematically developed from efficacy and effectiveness research and clinical consensus for practitioners and patients to use in making decisions about appropriate care under different clinical circumstances. Both fields have developed methods for evaluating and synthesising available evidence about the outcomes of alternative health care interventions. They have clear implications for health policy analysts: greater reliance should be placed on scientific evidence, policy decisions should be derived systematically, and health care decisionmaking must allow for the active participation of health care providers, policy makers, and patients or their advocates. The methods and information generated from evidence-based guidelines efforts are critical inputs into health policy analysis and decision-making.     

Patient stories, narratives of resistance and the ethics of humane care: a la recherche du temps perdu

Over the past 20 years, the study of patient-physician relationships and the discourse of clinical encounters has become a major area of inquiry. Interest in these topics is closely linked to an ethic of humane care, reflecting widespread criticism of a technocratic approach to clinical practice. A narrow framing of this approach led to the neglect of a category of patients' socially grounded accounts of their illness and treatment experiences referred to as 'narratives of resistance'. The problem addressed in this article is the lack of connection, in research and practice, between an approach grounded in a humane care ethic and an ethic of social justice that addresses the impact of social and economic inequalities on rates of illness and access to health care. The aim is to open up a critical discussion among researchers, health care educators, practitioners and patients about relationships between ethical standpoints, clinical practice and research.     

The feasibility of determining the impact of primary health care research projects using the Payback Framework

Background  

Primary health care research is under pressure to be accountable to funders in terms of benefits for practice and policy. However, methods to assess the impact of primary health care research must be appropriate to use with the diverse topics, settings and approaches of this sector. This project explored the feasibility of using the Buxton and Hanney Payback Framework to determine the impact of a stratified random sample (n = 4) of competitively funded, primary health care research projects.     

Identifying needs and setting priorities: issues of theory, policy and practice

The National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990 signalled an explicit shift away from a service-driven to a needs-led pattern of delivery for both health and social care. However, a definitive meaning of ‘need’ is elusive. Where the work of health and social care agencies is related closely, as in community care, recognition and careful handling of different approaches to need is important for effective inter-sectoral collaboration and supply of appropriate care to service users. This paper examines three dimensions of need: theory, policy and practice. Some key components of the theoretical debate about the meaning of ‘need’ are explored briefly, particularly in relation to health, and a set of questions is extracted that underpin the construction of need in policy and practice. These questions are then applied to a comparison of policy guidance documents for needs assessment for health and social (community) care. While the documents demonstrate some similarities in their view of need, there are also material differences. These differences have implications for the supply of services at the boundary between health and social care, some examples of which are discussed. Given a lack of consensus in defining and measuring need, the paper concludes with a framework of key questions which could enable purchasers and providers of health care to be more explicit about the bases upon which ‘needs-led’ services are defined and delivered.     

Women and sex-specific health research in the German Society for Social Medicine and Prevention

Since the 1970s women's health research has put gender-specific topics on the agenda of health research and practice. Based on a social science approach, it focuses on social conditions of the maintenance of women's health and of their needs in prevention, health promotion, medical treatment, and rehabilitation. Besides an analysis of woman-specific topics (such as sexual violence or drug abuse) women's health research addresses questions of gender bias in health research. In Germany, guidelines are lacking that ensure appropriate attention to gender issues for health research. The section "Woman-specific and gender-specific health research" of the German Society for Social Medicine and Prevention (DGSMP) intends to intensify the discussion on the gaps in health research and prevention and on the development of guidelines to detect gender bias. The main goal is to implement the concept of gender mainstreaming in public health.