Health services research - developed/developing countries
Among other factors, one factor that distinguishes health services research in developed countries from health services research in developing countries is that the former uses a strong implementation science framework to drive and measure quality improvement. There is a strong emphasis on measuring and assessing service delivery and the implementation of initiatives. Busy clinicians don’t always have the time to measure and assess service delivery, or to undertake implementation research. Healthcare managers can help to do this work but the discipline of healthcare management does not really exist outside developed countries. It has also been quite enlightening to see how qualitative research methods and approaches are used in healthcare research (for example, to understand patient experiences or clinicians’ perspectives on barriers to and enablers of quality improvement) in developed countries. Sometimes, systems-related quality improvement initiatives can make a huge difference, ev...