title: A 'year in the life' of health services research in oncology.
abstract: Oncology health services research (HSR) is a broad, multidimensional field. Current areas of research foci may be informative. We searched Medline for oncology HSR papers published in English in a single year (2009). Abstracted data related to access, quality, cost, health/wellbeing, place on the cancer continuum and study design. Among 1113 papers, the most commonly studied HSR domain was quality-of-care (65%). Within the care continuum, 'treatment' received the greatest attention (37%), and 'prevention' the least (5%). More specifically, treatment-related quality-of-care was most often studied (23%). Breast cancer was the most common site focus (28%). Most studies were descriptive (75%), retrospective (35%) or cross-sectional (35%). These findings might inform the decisions of researchers or policy makers seeking to improve cancer health services delivery.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Care and Epidemiology, Cancer Research Institute, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, Canada. michael.brundage@krcc.on.ca
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Brundage
authors.forename: Claire F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.forename: Brenda
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bass
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D006291:Health Policy; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D011050:Policy Making; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012107:Research Design