United States Administrative Databases and Cancer Registries for Thoracic Surgery Health Services Research

The incorporation of genetics into health services research has largely floundered, despite the rapidly accelerating availability of, and access to, such data. This is expected given the ethical questions involved. However, using these new resources robustly to examine population choices when it comes to health insurer selection, coverage therein and especially the subsequent use of health services is a necessary step forward, especially given the increasing prevalence of multimorbidity. Such a novel advancement in health services research may eventually propel public and private insurers to redesign their infrastructure to more accurately reflect the behavioural inclinations of their beneficiary populations. Using this resource will likely provide equally important insight for countries with extensive mixed insurer systems (like the United States) or nations with a greater emphasis on single-payer systems (such as various European models).

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Opportunities for diversifying and enriching our article mix

Israel Journal of Health Policy Research ◽

10.1186/s13584-020-00427-9 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Bruce Rosen ◽

Stephen C. Schoenbaum ◽

Avi Israeli

Keyword(s):

Health Policy ◽

Health Services Research ◽

Health Services ◽

Large Scale ◽

Policy Research ◽

National Policy ◽

Administrative Databases ◽

Services Research ◽

Health Policy Analysis ◽

Access To Data

AbstractAs 2020 comes to a close, the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research (IJHPR) will soon be starting its tenth year of publication. This editorial compares data from 2012 (the journal’s first year of publication) and 2019 (the journal’s most recent full year of publication), regarding the journal’s mix of article types, topics, data sources and methods, with further drill-downs regarding 2019.The analysis revealed several encouraging findings, including a broad and changing mix of topics covered. However, the analysis also revealed several findings that are less encouraging, including the limited number of articles which assessed national policy changes, examined changes over time, and/or made secondary use of large-scale survey data. These findings apparently reflect, to some extent, the mix of studies being carried out by Israeli health services researchers.As the senior editors of the IJHPR we are interested in working with funders, academic institutions, the owners and principal users of relevant administrative databases, and individual scholars to further understand the factors influencing the mix of research being carried out, and subsequently published, by Israel’s health services research community. This deeper understanding could then be used to develop a joint plan to diversify and enrich health services research and health policy analysis in Israel. The plan should include a policy of ensuring improved access to data, to properly support information-based research.

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