Dear Bruno
Could you include my name on the mailing list as well please
Thanks
Teresa
Teresa Jones
Research Fellow
Health Economics Research Group
Brunel University
Uxbridge
Middlesex
UB8 3PH
Tel: 01895 265492
Fax: 01895 203330
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bruno Marchal
Sent: 25 June 2012 13:50
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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Regards,
The editorial team
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