International Journal of Health Policy and Management

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

Making Research Matter; Comment on “Public Spending on Health Service and Policy Research in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States: A Modest Proposal”

Document Type : Commentary

Authors
David J. Hunter 1
John Frank 2
1 Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
2 Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
10.15171/ijhpm.2017.97
Abstract
We offer a UK-based commentary on the recent “Perspective” published in IJHPM by Thakkar and Sullivan. We are sympathetic to the authors’ call for increased funding for health service and policy research (HSPR). However, we point out that increasing that investment – in any of the three countries they compare: Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom– will ipso facto not necessarily lead to any better use of research by health system decision-makers in these settings. We cite previous authors’ descriptions of the many factors that tend to make the worlds of researchers and decision-makers into “two solitudes.” And we call for changes in the structure and funding of HSPR, particularly the incentives now in place for purely academic publishing, to tackle a widespread reality: most published research in HSPR, as in other applied fields of science, is never read or used by the vast majority of decision-makers, working out in the “real world.”
Keywords
Health Service and Policy Research (HSPR)
Evidence
Health Reform
Subjects
  1. Thakkar V, Sullivan T. Public spending on health service and policy research in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States: A modest proposal. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2017; Forthcoming. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2017.45
  2. Naylor CD et al. (Advisory Panel for the Review of Federal Support for Fundamental Science). Investing In Canada’s Future: Strengthening the Foundations of Canadian Research. Ottawa: Government of Canada, 2017. http://www.sciencereview.ca/eic/site/059.nsf/vwapj/ScienceReview_April2017-rv.pdf/$file/ScienceReview_April2017-rv.pdf
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  9. Holmes BJ, Best A, Davies H, et al. Mobilising knowledge in complex health systems: a call to action. Evid Policy. 2016. doi:10.1332/174426416X14712553750311
International Journal of Health Policy and Management
Volume 7, Issue 4
2018
Pages 353-355

  • Received Date 28 June 2017
  • Revised Date 05 August 2017
  • Accepted Date 05 August 2017
  • First Published Date 01 April 2018
  • Published Date 01 April 2018