Hi Bruno
Yes please! Sign me up.
I'm copying in the current convenors of the RE&RS SIG in Australia too.
They'll want to subscribe too, I suspect.
Cheers
Gill
-----Original Message-----
From: Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bruno Marchal
Sent: Monday, 25 June 2012 10:20 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FW: TDI in Health Policy & Systems Research Newsletter
Hello all,
For all issues related to realist evaluation - and theory-driven inquiry in
general - , we created a newsletter with Geoff. #1 was sent out a month ago
(see below) and we aim at sending a newsletter every quarter.
RE and RS obviously share an important number of philosophical, conceptual
and methodological issues. This newsletter aims at summarising “interesting
news and developments in realist research. We hope our efforts will
stimulate discussion, exchanges and networking among researchers and
evaluators globally - in the South and the North. This newsletter is aimed
at anyone who is interested in or using realist inquiry or other
theory-driven evaluation approaches in the field of health policy and
systems research and evaluation.”
The links in the newsletter below won’t work, but just send me a mail
([log in to unmask]) if you’re interested in subscribing.
Best,
-bruno
Bruno Marchal, MD, MPH, PhD
Postdoctoral researcher
Health Care Management Unit
Department of Public Health
Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp (Belgium) [log in to unmask]
Nationalestraat 155, B-2000 Antwerpen, Belgium
+32.3.2476384
--
Theory Driven Inquiry in Health Policy & Systems Research Newsletter #1
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Theory Driven Inquiry
in Health Policy and Systems Research
Newsletter #1
May 2012
Introduction
More and more researchers are using theory driven enquiry methods (such as
realist evaluation or synthesis). The number of studies, protocols, reviews
and other publications using these methods grows day by day. The impetus
behind this movement seems to be that researchers have recognized that
theory driven methods offer a promising potential ‘solution’ when dealing
with ‘complex’ interventions.
As Ray Pawson wrote in the latest issue of Evaluation, “The realist approach
can now be said to be part of the repertoire of evaluation methods. There
has been a corresponding shift in methodological focus (…) and closer
examination of its practice ‘on the ground’ ”. There are, indeed, a number
of methodological challenges related to all theory-driven approaches, and we
probably will move on best by having more interaction and more discussion on
what constitutes good theory-driven inquiry.
We felt that this was now a good time to produce a newsletter that
summarises interesting news and developments in realist research. We hope
our efforts will stimulate discussion, exchanges and networking among
researchers and evaluators globally - in the South and the North. This
newsletter is aimed at anyone who is interested in or using realist inquiry
or other theory-driven evaluation approaches in the field of health policy
and systems research and evaluation. Alongside this main focus, we will also
cover issues around complexity in health policy and systems research. We
will try to send out this newsletter on a quarterly basis. At the same time,
we will keep the TDI website
<http://itg.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=83fdedf4bfffd53a9dae7fcbc&id=
49d22bc203&e=561987c11b> updated as a repository for TDI papers and will
continue to run the RAMESES email
<http://itg.us5.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=83fdedf4bfffd53a9dae7fcbc&id=
3f0280cb67&e=561987c11b> list.
Please send us any information on new (empirical) studies, protocols,
publications, funding opportunities, conferences, workshops, etc. We would
encourage you to forward this newsletter to interested colleagues. We would
be delighted to hear from you by email: Bruno ([log in to unmask]) and Geoff
([log in to unmask]).
Bruno Marchal 1, Sara Van Belle 2 , Guy Kegels 1 & Geoff Wong 3
1 Health Care Management Unit, Department of Public Health, Institute of
Tropical Medicine, Antwerp
2 PhD researcher, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London
3 Centre for Primary Care and Population Health, Queen Mary, University of
London, London
________________________________
1. Research
REALIST EVALUATION
The protocol for a realist evaluation study of capacity building of district
health management teams in India Prashanth NS, Marchal B, Hoeree T, et al.
(2012) describe how they developed a study to examine whether and how a
training programme aimed at district health managers in Tumkur, Karnataka
(India) actually works. Starting with a description of the intervention, the
authors explain how they built the programme theory and how they will test
this in practice.
A realist diagnostic workshop
In the April issue of Evaluation, Pawson and Manzano-Santaella (2012)
discuss how realist evaluation can be applied in practice on the basis of 4
published realist evaluations.
(Ref: Pawson R, Manzano-Santaella A. A realist diagnostic workshop.
Evaluation. 2012; 18(2): 176-91)
Literature review of realist evaluation in Health Policy and Systems
Research In the same issue, Marchal and colleagues (2012) present the
findings of their literature review of the use of realist evaluation in the
field of health policy and systems research
(Ref: Marchal B, Van Belle S, Van Olmen J, Hoerée T, Kegels G. Is realist
evaluation keeping its promise? A literature review of methodological
practice in health systems research. Evaluation. 2012; 18(2): 192-212)
A realistic evaluation of fines for hospital discharges: Incorporating the
history of programme evaluations in the analysis Ana Manzano-Santaella
(2011) explains how RE was used in the study of incentives in hospital
discharge policies in the NHS. She revisited previous studies in the search
for context-mechanism-outcome configuration elements and used the resulting
preliminary programme theory in a case study.
(Ref: Manzano-Santaella A. A realistic evaluation of fines for hospital
discharges: Incorporating the history of programme evaluations in the
analysis. Evaluation. 2011; 17(1): 21-36)
Examining the link between health workforce management and hospital
performance through realist evaluation Bruno Marchal defended his PhD thesis
on 20 September 2011 at the VUB, Brussels.The dissertation can be downloaded
here.
(Ref: Marchal B. Why do some hospitals perform better than others? A realist
evaluation of the role of health workforce management in well-performing
health care organisations. Brussels: Vrije Universiteit Brussel & Institute
of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp; 2011)
Other recent publications
- Brooks H, Pilgrim D, Rogers A. (2011) Innovation in mental health
services: what are the key components of success? Implementation Science; 6:
120.
- Holma K, Kontinen T. (2011) Realistic evaluation as an avenue to learning
for development NGOs. Evaluation; 17(2): 181-92.
________________________________
THEORY-DRIVEN EVALUATION
A theory-driven evaluation of the transition of Avahan, a large scale
HIV/AIDS programme in India Sara Bennett and colleagues (2011) present how
they constructed a logic model of the transition of the Avahan project from
a donor-driven project to government-controlled programme. Avahan is a
large-scale HIV/AIDS prevention programme that is being implemented in 6
Indian states. The authors describe how they used this as the programme
theory on which the evaluation design is based.
Using programme theory to build a hypothesis on knowledge management and
policymaking Elisabeth Nabyonga et al (2012) used a programme
theory-approach to investigate how Ugandan policymakers, researchers and
other actors perceive the policymaking process and the role of evidence and
research in it.
Other recent publications
- Millar R, Powell M, Dixon A. (2012) What was the programme theory of New
Labour's Health System Reforms. Journal of Health Services Research &
Policy; 17(Suppl 1): 7-15.
________________________________
REALIST SYNTHESIS
Robert and colleagues (2012) published the protocol of their realist review
of user fee exemption policies for health services in Africa in BMJ Open.
Rycroft-Malone and colleagues (2012) explain how they developed a realist
review and synthesis of evidence concerning strategies that enable
evidence-informed healthcare. Focusing on the role of change agency in
knowledge translation interventions, they show how they developed the
review.
________________________________
2. Other interesting publications
The AHP&SR reader on Health Policy and Systems Research The Alliance for
Health Policy and Systems Research issued a comprehensive reader on
methodology for health policy and system research and evaluation, in which
realist evaluation features among other innovative approaches.
“The Reader is primarily for researchers and research users, teachers, and
students, particularly those working in low-and middle-income countries
(LMICs). It provides guidance on the defining features of HSPR and the
critical steps in conducting research in this field. It showcases the
diverse range of research strategies and methods encompassed by HPSR, and it
provides examples of good quality and innovative HPSR papers.”
(Ref: Gilson L. Health Policy and Systems Research A methodology reader.
Geneva: Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research & World Health
Organisation; 2012)
Known knowns, known unknowns, unknown unknowns: the predicament of
evidence-based policy Ray Pawson, Geoff Wong and L. Owen discuss
evidence-based policymaking in this publication in the American Journal of
Evaluation.
(Ref: Pawson R, Wong G, Owen L. Known knowns, known unknowns, unknown
unknowns: the predicament of evidence-based policy. American Journal of
Evaluation. 2011; 32(4): 518-46)
________________________________
3. Announcing …
Realist inquiry at the Australasian Evaluation Society Preceded by workshops
on 27-28 August 2012, this year’s Australasian Evaluation Society Conference
will take place between 29-31 August in Adelaide (Australia). Gill Westhorp
is Co-Chair of the conference, and she is also driving The Realist
Evaluation and Realist Synthesis Special Interest Group of the AES. You
could contact her if you would like to be on the mailing list of the
Bulletin of the RE&RS SIG ([log in to unmask])
The Second Global Symposium on Health Policy & Systems Research The Second
Symposium will take place in Beijing, 31 Oct – 3 Nov 2012. Submission
deadlines have now passed, but we are happy to announce that an introductory
workshop on realist methods and a parallel session on realist synthesis
organised by Geoff Wong have been accepted. Just hoping that the other RE
and TDI submissions will be accepted in the individual submission track.
________________________________
4. Realist and other TDI sightings
RAMESES
RAMESES is a UK based project funded by the National Institute for Health
Research Health Services and Delivery Research Programme that aims to
develop publication and quality standards for realist synthesis and
meta-narrative review. The project will also produce training materials for
researchers who wish to use these methods.
The project runs until the end of May 2013 and is led by Trisha Greenhalgh,
Ray Pawson and Geoff Wong. The protocol of the project has been published,
and the Delphi consultation on the guidelines has been finished. Publication
standards for both these methods are under development and will soon be
published.
BetterEvaluation
The BetterEvaluation project is in the process of developing a website that
brings together approaches, tools and techniques that can be used by
evaluators. Founding partners include ODI, Pact, ILAC and RMIT University.
“BetterEvaluation is an international collaboration to improve evaluation.
BetterEvaluation is designed to support practitioners to share their
knowledge and experience in choosing and using evaluation methods. At the
heart of the project is an interactive web-based platform about evaluation
methods and approaches that supports evaluators and evaluation commissioners
to choose the most appropriate combinations of evaluation approaches and
methods, and to implement these methods well.”
The site will have entries on realist evaluation and is expected to launch
in the coming months.
Conference by Trisha Greenhalgh at the UCL – Woluwe (Belgium) Trisha
Greenhalgh will give a conference on May 29 at 13.00 at UCLouvain-Woluwe. T.
Greenhalgh jointly leads the Global Health, Policy and Innovation Unit at
the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health Barts and The London School of
Medicine and Dentistry. She is well known for her work on developing
innovative interdisciplinary approaches, drawing on narrative, ethnographic
and participatory methods, to explore complex, policy-related issues in
contemporary healthcare. She also leads the RAMESES project (see above).
Please contact Jean Macq ([log in to unmask]) for more information.
________________________________
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of ITM’s newsletter on Theory Driven Inquiry.
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Readings, which covers major themes of health systems research, or the
weekly International Health Policies newsletter.
Do not hesitate to forward this mail to colleagues and friends.
Regards,
The editorial team
Copyright © 2012 Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, All rights
reserved.
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