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Workshop: future research priorities in European HSR and their use in European policy and practice.

Groenewegen, P. Workshop: future research priorities in European HSR and their use in European policy and practice. European Journal of Public Health: 2010, 20(suppl. 1), p. 97-98. Abstract. 3rd European Public Health Conference 'Integrated Public Health', 10 - 13 November 2010, Amsterdam.
The project ‘HSR Europe’ aims at identifying, evaluating and improving the contribution of Health Services Research (HSR) to the health policy process inside and outside of Europe. As a European Commission funded (FP-7) Support Action, the project contributes to future Research Framework Programmes and to informed policymaking processes. A recently organized working conference ‘Health Services Research in Europe’ (April 2010) with over 300 participants from in- and outside of Europe has led to the identification of research priorities in various targeted areas of HSR: (i) health-care systems; (ii) health-care organizations and service delivery; (iii) Health Technology Assessment; and (iv) benchmarking and performance indicators. In addition, the working conference distilled lessons on how to increase capacity for HSR, how to organise the HSR community and how to strengthen the relationship between research and policy and make more efficient use of HSR findings in the policy cycle at European and national level (more information and reports are available at http:// www.healthservicesresearch.eu). In the workshop three carousel discussion areas will be addressed. The three areas are (i) health-care systems performance, with special emphasis on methods to monitor and compare health systems performance and health systems reforms. (ii) Health-care organization research, with particular focus on evaluating the role of primary versus secondary care in the organization and delivery of care. (iii) Linkage between research and policy, determining whether current infrastructures are sufficient to meet the needs of health policy makers and to recommend how possible shortcomings can be removed to ensure an effective use of HSR. For each discussion area, a lead expert from the project team will present major lessons and priorities as distilled from the working conference. Next, a round table discussion will focus on the question whether these priorities are shared among health care experts and stakeholders from across Europe. The workshop will serve as a point of reference to refine and discuss under- researched areas given upcoming policy needs with the participants of the EUPHA Annual Conference. What conclusions can be drawn and which topics should receive more or less attention when fine-tuning a European HSR agenda?