PH 312 Research Methods for Health Services Management

Course Description:
This course focuses on the concepts and principles of scientific quantitative research methods, particularly suitable in the domain of health services management. Emphasis is placed on the evaluation methods for health interventions, including preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic services. At the end of the course, students are expected to have developed a relevant research proposal which can be implemented thereafter.

• Prerequisite Courses: None

A. PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES (PLOS):
The student will be able to:

1. Recognize, describe and discuss and research about the basic principles and practices of the specialty
2. List, discuss and demonstrate the essential public health functions or the specialty and its interrelationships with the other specialties and health disciplines at community and national levels
3. Describe, discuss and research adult, children and family health issues at community level
4. Discuss and demonstrate an understanding and practice of the speciality public health competencies
5. Demonstrate proper public health skills for its practice in the community as a national specialty practitioner
6. Discuss and demonstrate community and cultural sensitivity in the health care environment
7. Describe, discuss and research the health determinants and problems of adults, children and families
8. Demonstrate proper cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid techniques and other healing and patient care abilities
9. Demonstrate the ability and discuss how to conduct a community diagnosis and need assessment of the health determinants of the specialty in a community
10. Identify and demonstrate good practice in the specialty
11. Have had management, planning experience and leadership role at a public health specialty at community and national levels.

B. STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES (SLOS) - GENERAL
The student will be able to:

1. Describe different research strategies and their application in health services management.
2. Explain the importance of research in health services management
3. Describe the principal strands of methodological research applicable in health services.
4. Complete a research proposal which is relevant and feasible regarding local health services management.

I = Introduced
D = Demonstrated
M = Mastered

C. STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES (SLOS) – SPECIFIC
The student will be able to:

General SLO 1: Describe different research strategies and their application in health services management.

General SLO 2: Explain the importance of research in health services management.

General SLO 3: Describe the principal strands of methodological research applicable in health services.

General SLO 4: Complete a research proposal which is relevant and feasible regarding local health services management

D. COURSE CONTENT

1. Research and scientific methods
   
   1. Definition of research
   2. Categories of health research
      1. Empirical research and theoretical research
      2. Basic research and applied research
      3. The health research triangle
      4. Fundamental principles used in health services research: order; inference and chance; evaluation of probability; hypothesis formulation
      5. Study Design
      6. Research planning and management
      7. Research strategies
         1. Selection of research strategy
         2. Errors in the inference
            
            1. Reliability: reliablity of measurements and reliability of study
            2. Validity: systematic errors (bias) and random errors
         3. Experimental versus observational strategies
         4. Descriptive studies
            
            1. Case series
            2. Community diagnosis or assessment
            3. Epidemiological description of disease occurrence
            4. Descriptive cross-sectional or community (population) surveys
            5. Ecological descriptive studies
         5. Analytical studies
            
            1. Case-control studies
            2. Prospective cohort studies
            3. Historical (retrospective) cohort studies
            4. Prognostic cohort studies
            5. Analytical cross-sectional studies
            6. Ecological studies
         6. Comparision of the three major analytical strategies
         7. Choice of Strategy applicable in health services management
         8. Research health services
            
            1. How should health care interventions be evaluated?
            2. The need for research in specific areas of health care:
               
               1. Curative care
               2. Primary and community care
               3. Pharmaceuticals
               4. Diagnostics and imaging
               5. Population screening
            3. What does "systematic" mean for reviews of methods?
            4. Different types of systematic review in health services research
         9. Measurement of benefits and costs
            
            1. Patient-assessed outcome measures
            2. The use of health-related quality of life measures in economic evaluation
            3. Colleting resource use data in clinical studies
            4. Designing and using patient and staff questionnaires
         10. Methods of evaluating health care
             
             1. Choosing between randomized and non-randomized studies
             2. Factors that limit the number, quality, and progress of randomized trials
             3. Ethics of randomized trials
             4. Implications of sociocultural contexts related to the ethics of randomized trials
             5. Levels of evaluation of health care interventions
             6. Qualitative methods in health services research
         11. Presenting, interpreting, and synthesizing evidence
             
             1. Systematic reviews of randomized trials
             2. Handling uncertainty in economic evaluations of health care interventions
             3. Consensus development methods for creating clinical guidelines
         12. Statistical methods
             
             1. Basic statistical methods and the new developments
             2. An introduction to Bayesian methods in health services research
             3. Quality of life assessment and survival data
         13. Construction of a research proposal
             
             1. Generic construction of a research proposal
                
                1. Statement of the problem
                2. Relevance of the problem to national and local health activities
                3. Field(s) of application of the proposed results
                4. Review of literature and other existing information
                5. Statement of objectives
                6. Variables
                7. Statement of research hypothesis
                8. Research Methodology
                9. Budget
             2. tepwise construction of a research design using the WHO/WPRO format for a research proposal
             3. Example of a project description
         E. METHODS OF INSTRUCTION
         1. Lectures: in-class lectures
         2. Group discussions and exercises on the review of research papers on health services management.

         F. REQUIRED TEXT AND COURSE MATERIALS
         Black N., et al. (1998). Health services research methods: A guide to best practice (1st ed.). Sudburry, Massachusetts: BMJ Books. (or most recent edition)

         G. REFERENCE MATERIALS
         The World Health Organization. (2001). Health research methodology: A guide for training in research methods (2nd ed.). Geneva, Switzerland: WHO, WPRO. (or most recent edition).
         Brink H., Walt CVD. (2005). Fundamental of research methodologies for health-care professionals (2nd ed.). Cape Town, South Africa: Juta Academic. (or most recent edition)
         Hulley SB., et al. (2007) Designing clinical research (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Wolters Kluwer Health – Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. (or most recent edition)

         H. INSTRUCTIONAL COST
         none

         I. EVALUATION
         None

         J. CREDIT BY EXAMINATION
         None