Overview

Health care delivery is undergoing intense scrutiny and pressure for change: people have high expectations and want value for money. Research can do much to evaluate the effectiveness of health care, but deeply rooted disciplinary preconceptions - about what should be done and how, and about what is scientific - have hampered relevant research. ""Researching Health Care"" brings together an international team of health researchers from the fields of clinical care, clinical epidemiology, bio-statistics, sociology, health economics and health policy. The problem of research method is central to the evaluation of health care, and the contributors therefore focus on the three most important methods in use at present: experimental methods, surveys and other quantitative methods, and qualitative methods. The strengths and limitations of each method are spelled out, and the contributors show how some methods are more appropriate for evaluating the technical aspects of medicine, others for social and community issues. They argue that complex health care problems can be adequately addressed only by an equally broad range of research study designs, as well as by a willingness to co-operate. This book should be of interest to researchers and professionals in training and practice in social policy, social work, health studies and sociology.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jeanne Daly ,  Ian McDonald ,  Evan Willis ,  Ian McDonald (Cardiac Investigation Unit, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia)
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Dimensions:   Width: 13.80cm , Height: 1.70cm , Length: 21.60cm
Weight:   0.385kg
ISBN:  

9780415070775

ISBN 10:   0415070775
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   06 August 1992
Audience:   College/higher education ,  General/trade ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of illustrations – List of contributors – Acknowledgements -- Introduction: the problem as we saw it/Jeanne Daly and Ian McDonald -- Part I. Issues of policy. 1. The perspective of the policy maker on health care research and evaluation/David Hailey. 2. Cost-utility analyses in health care: present status and future issues/Jeff Richardson -- Part II. The randomised controlled trial. 3. Randomised controlled trials in health care research/David J. Newell. 4. The impact of clinical research on clinical practice/Jack Hirsh. 5. The clinician and the randomised controlled trial/Michael Jelinek -- Part III. Non-experimental quantitative study designs. 6. Broadening the scope of evaluation: why and how/Christel A. Woodward. 7. Advantages and limitations of the survey approach: understanding older people/John B. McKinlay. 8. Comparing alternative methodologies of social research: an overview/Jake M. Najman, John Morrison, Gail M. Williams and Margaret J. Andersen -- Part IV. Qualitative research methods.; 9. 'Don't mind him -- he's from Barcelona': qualitative methods in health studies/Robert Dingwall. 10. Applying the qualitative method to clinical care/David Silverman. 11. Why don't you ask them?: a qualitative research framework for investigating the diagnosis of cardiac normality/Jeanne Daly, Ian McDonald and Evan Willis -- Part V. Conclusion. 12. Research methods in health care -- a summing up/Ian McDonald and Jeanne Daly – Name index – Subject index.

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Author Information

Jean Daly is a Research Fellow in the Sociology Department at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Ian McDonald is a practising cardiologist and Director of the Cardiac Investigation Unit, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne.

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