Frequently Asked Questions

What is health services research?

Introduction to HSR is a course designed to provide an introduction to the issues and methodologies of health services research. This field of research cuts across multiple disciplines and relies heavily on the published literature. It requires quality filtering skills and the organization and analysis of large sets of data.

Where can I find information on health services research and statistics?

The National Information Center on Health Services Research & Health Care Technology "coordinates the development of information products and services related to health services research." This site provides a guide to health services research databases, HSR web-sites, (which include links to agencies, data sources, and health statistics, funding opportunities, health policy, health economics, information systems, public health, rural health, and state resources), health technology assessments, --and health services research projects.

Finding and using statistics is a course on finding an using and health statistics.

How do you do a health technology assessment?

HTA101 - Introduction to Health Care Technology Assessment, HTA101 is an updated and expanded Web version of a monograph prepared by Dr. Clifford S. Goodman for a technology assessment conference in 1995. It includes a discussion of the origins and fundamental concepts and issues of health care technology assessment (HCTA), basic steps in the practice of HCTA, suggested readings, and a glossary of HCTA terms.

Where can I find information on medical conditions?

Medical and health information can be obtained from Medline Plus.

Another way to access MEDLINE's compilation of more than nine million citations in the medical literature is through PUBMED.

What is managed care?

A managed care glossary describe all the acronymns and word used to describe managed care

The Guide to research on managed care summarizes evidence on managed care effects

Medscape's managed care news provides current summaries of the literature on managed care

The web site for the Risk Adjustment Impact Study is a good launch point to the literature and techniques associated with risk adjustment. Risk adjustment refers to the techniques associated with predicting future health care use by a population of individuals.

Where can I search the medical literature? How can I review the scientific literature in the health sciences?

MEDLINE's compilation of more than nine million citations in the medical literature is through PUBMED provides a good starting point for searching the health care related literature. Indices from other areas which include some health related material include EconLit (Economics), PsycInfo (Psychology), and Sociological Abstracts (Sociology), ABI-Inform (business and social
sciences), INSPEC (computer science and engineering) which can be accessed through the University of Minnesota Library (to obtain access to the indices, you will need to have a University of Minnesota account).

"Health Sciences Literature Review Made Easy: The Matrix Method," written by Judy Garrard, a HPM faculty member, can help you organize your literature review systematically. It gives a step-by-step approach for systematically reviewing the research literature in all of the health sciences, using many of the electronic databases such as MEDLINE, and setting up a
reprint file. It is published by Aspen Publishers and can also be obtained at Amazon.

The Evidence-based Medicine Resource Center provides access to the literature on evidence based medicine, which is "a methodology for evaluating the validity of research in clinical medicine and applying the results to the care of individual patients. Evidence is gathered through systematic review of the literature, and is critically appraised. The results are then integrated with physician/patient decision making." The site supports the use of evidence based medicine by providing bibliographies, teaching materials for learning about evidence based medicine, and links to resources.

What are some portals for health policy issues?

Duke University's CyberExchange provides multiple ways of retrieving information about health policy. The site includes extensive directories of organizations active in health policy, descriptions of health policy areas, and links to many other health services and policy resources.

Moving Ideas is the Policy Action Network's links to health policy for general health and medicine, national health policy, state health policy, public health, consumer health, quality improvement and health information technology, managed care, health foundations, and health journals.