NIVEL – the Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research - is the national institute for health services research in the Netherlands. It is an independent organisation. Its domain is applied and applicable health services research. NIVEL has a dual mission: scientific and societal. Increasingly, NIVEL has an international orientation.
  
Research domain
NIVEL’s core business is health services research. Health services research is the multidisciplinary field of scientific investigation that examines how social factors, financing systems, organisational structures and processes, health technologies, and personal behaviours affect access to health care, the quality and costs of health care, and ultimately our health and well-being .
  
The Diagram on the left depicts the six domains of the NIVEL research programme. Central to our approach is the interaction between patients and care professionals and organisations. We study this interaction and its outcomes in relation to governance structures, whilst also investigating characteristics of patients, care professionals and organisations.

Applied and applicable research
NIVEL's research is characterized as applied and applicable research. By this statement two different things are meant:

• NIVEL’s research draws on theories and methods from several disciplines, including epidemiology, medical sociology, psychology, human geography, health economics, medicine, nursing and physiotherapy. This has consequences both for NIVEL’s recruitment policy and for collaboration with other research institutes.
• NIVEL’s research focuses on research questions which address issues that are relevant to the actors in health care and policy. Its potential use in policy-making processes is continuously borne in mind. NIVEL’s research aims to contribute to evidence-informed policy.

NIVEL’s research capacity and expertise are used by many organisations, such as:
 

• Governmental bodies (Dutch and foreign ministries, European Commission)
• Scientific research organisations
• Organisations representing health care professionals, health care consumers, health care insurance companies

Statutory obligation to publish the results of all its activities
NIVEL’s activities include the collation and publication of existing knowledge and evidence in articles in scientific, professional and policy journals, in reports, bibliographies, reviews, summaries and fact sheets. NIVEL has a statutory obligation to publish the results of all its activities.

Expertise
Since its start in 1965, NIVEL has built up expertise on various aspects within the domain of health care services. Starting as the scientific institute of the Dutch College of General Practitioners, NIVEL’s domain has expanded gradually to primary care, secondary care and hospital care. Nowadays, NIVEL’s research covers the entire ‘somatic’ health care. NIVEL’s permanent staff consists of senior experts, all with a PhD degree, in various fields.

NIVEL's National Information Systems
An important basis for our expertise is the responsibility for national data bases and information systems on:

• Health care professionals: national register of general practitioners, midwives, physical therapists, …
• Health care consumers: panels of consumers and of people with a chronic disease or disability, …
• Health care need and use of health care: information network of general practice, European influenza surveillance scheme, national surveys of general practice, ...

Quality of research
In 2010 an independent international review committee assessed the scientific quality and societal relevance of NIVEL’s research. On a scale from one to five we received a five.

• Read the report
• www.nivel.eu/selfevaluation

In december 2008 we received once again the full ISO-9001 accreditation.


What can NIVEL do for you?
NIVEL's expertise is available for people involved in research and/or in health policy; people who work in an organisation of health care professionals, a consumer organisation, or a health insurance company.

NIVEL’s service includes for example:
 

• Evaluation studies of the efficacy of innovations in health care, policy measures and health law (either in the structure or the process of care)
• Scenario studies to predict developments in the need for health care or the supply of health care
• International comparative studies regarding health care systems
• Answering specific questions by using NIVEL’s knowledge base, e.g. evidence on the effectiveness of policy measures regarding the provision of health care