title: Health services research and health policy.
abstract: Health services research (HSR) has the potential to influence the decision-making process in a health services system that is acutelearchers feel, with some truth, that their research has had only a limited effect on health policy. Some reasons for this are described, including the primacy of political, rather than technical, considerations in policy making, the lack of a comprehensive health policy, and the poor quality and irrelevance of much HSR. The role of funding for HSR by the Federal government is described; it is shown that the Federal effort is fragmented, despite the consolidation efforts made in 1968. Increased support for specific targeted, problem-solving health services research is proposed, and some possible methods to achieve this are described.
mesh_terms: D005380:Financing, Government; D006076:Government; D006285:Health Planning; D006296:Health Services; D012106:Research; D012109:Research Support as Topic; D014481:United States