Health Services Research Methodology Core Library Recommendations, 2007
Compiled by AcademyHealth
Funded by the National Library of Medicine http://www.nlm.nih.gov/nichsr/corelib/hsrmethods.html
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) contracted with Academy Health to develop a core and a desired list of books, journals, bibliographic databases, web sites, and other media in the field of health services research methods. Both core and desired lists serve as guides for health librarians who want to develop a health services research methods collection.
Due to the breadth of the methodological areas covered by health services research, the library is organized both by core and desired materials, as well as by topic area, offering a framework for developing a collection of HSR methods resources. The benefit of dividing the resources based upon “core” and “desired” resources, as well as by discipline, is that librarians will have a choice of which specific subtopics they deem to be most beneficial for their collection.
Across all topic areas identified, the core list contains 56 books, 50 journals, 6 bibliographic databases, and 23 web sites (and ‘other’ resources such as instructional videos).
The NIH Health Services Research Study Section sought to define HSR as a distinct field of scientific inquiry at the intersection of public health and medical care, informed by disciplinary perspectives. The field has evolved to encompass multiple disciplinary perspectives, including methods from cognate disciplines such as economics, statistics, political science, sociology, and many other schools of thought. The field has also developed new models and techniques to address research questions in specialized areas of inquiry such as patient safety and access to care.
The Academy Health definition of health services research, developed in 2000 by Kathleen Lohr and Don Steinwachs, is as follows:
Health services research is the multidisciplinary field of scientific investigation that studies how social factors, financing systems, organizational structures and processes, health technologies, and personal behaviors affect access to health care, the quality and cost of health care, and ultimately our health and well-being. Its research domains are individuals, families, organizations, institutions, communities, and populations
HSR methods are not confined to disciplinary methods, but rather, are unique in their approach to medical and health care delivery questions because the field was developed to facilitate study of applied questions. These include:
- Who has access to health care?
- Do patients in large urban areas receive the same level of services as those in rural areas?
- At different levels of care, which patients have the best outcomes?
Librarians may wish to utilize the modules by choosing specific content areas that will benefit their library’s needs. Likewise, faculty developing new courses may look to this list for suggested current textbooks in the field. The organization of the list is intended to facilitate understanding of the array of options in different disciplines.
These lists of resources are not intended to define the full range of HSR methods texts. They provide a set of resources considered valuable by librarians and academics in the field of health services research.
The field of health services research is continually expanding and developing new methods to apply to health care and health care delivery questions. Due to the fact that the field is growing rapidly, users of these lists should search for updated versions of the resources cited here in order to ensure the most recent information on methodological topics.
