Dilemmas in evaluating health care and clinical programs.
This article discusses some of the dilemmas in evaluation research that are commonly encountered in evaluating pharmacy and health care programs. Emphasis is on the difference between decision-oriented evaluation and hypothesis-testing research. Deficiencies, abuses, and pitfalls are discussed along with rationalizations often generated by negative findings. Disclosure of the problems that arise should make the path to quality evaluations less perilous.
D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006302:Health Services Research; D012107:Research Design; D012494:Sampling Studies; D013223:Statistics as Topic