• Health research

Health research

This short briefing paper looks researchers from a variety of academic disciplines ensure that the benefits of medical advances are made more widely available and that poor people worldwide gain better access to improved health services. It argues that:

• health policymakers need exposure to the findings of a variety of social science approaches to health systems analysis to gain a more realistic understanding of the challenges they face in achieving rapid improvements in health and health services
• stakeholders from all relevant sectors should contribute to the formulation of health-related national policies and the identification of research priorities
• international agencies and foundations that support health interventions need to recognise the many influences on implementation, recruit appropriate experts and integrate a development approach into their analytical work
• research-funding agencies should ensure broad social science as well as medical representation on the bodies that define research priorities, and social science research funding bodies can be requested to manage some health-related programmes
• support may be provided to social science institutions in low- and middle-income countries to help them develop health research programmes and create a critical mass of experienced social scientists.
• social science institutions could become more involved in health research, either on their own or in partnership with health institutions.
• efforts could be made to encourage dialogue between the health and social science communities when findings of health-related research are disseminated.

[adapted from author]

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