Importance of Research

Posted: September 5th, 2013

Importance of Research

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Importance of research in guiding the development of health policy

            Health care providers set certain goals in their healthcare provision and in order to attain them, certain decisions and plans are undertaken, actions implemented for the achievement of these goals, and these are referred to as health policies. Health care policies should be thorough for the maximum achievement of certain goals that include; definition of a vision for the future, prioritization of goals and activities and differentiation of roles for every individual. It must be informative to the general mass and should bring about generation and distribution of healthcare information.

Research will lead to prioritization of issues hence giving the policy makers a basis of prioritization in policy formulation leading to more pressing issues being tackled with more priority than others are. This will also aid in creation of a long-term link between policy makers and the researchers. The research however has to be relevant to policy issues and the system has to be capable of absorbing the research findings and willing to use it. It increases accountability on the policy maker’s part as constant assignments are conducted to review the progress made because of the researches conducted. Research influences the various methods of policy formulation used hence changing the overall effect of policy formation on the healthcare system. Research increase healthcare’s capacity to decode the findings in researches since the policy makers are expected to analyze the information and incorporate the findings in bettering policy formulation in the future. The researches conducted are used to determine the current state of the process of service in clinics.

One of the benefits of research is that policies made with the aid of information gathered during research tend to be better as they deal with the real life statistics affecting health care provision. These researches cover wide areas in the healthcare system of the country where with realization of the vital sector in the system; there is new policies formulation to tackle those areas cutting down on unnecessary costs that would otherwise rise. By using data gathered in the research, policy makers will have accurate state of spending on each health care decision hence those that bring the greatest overall benefit are allocated larger amounts of funds. This ensures that health care becomes economical to the country without compromising the quality of provision (Banta, 2003).

Research applies in support of decisions already taken by the policy makers. Incase of contradictions in decisions made by the policymakers, researches determine why the there is preference of the decisions followed by showing their greater benefit to the overall health goals attainment as the compared to any other decision not undertaken (Hanney, Gonzalez-Block, Buxton, & Kogan, 2003). Researches aid in understanding the level of knowledge of the public on health care after which information is released to the public on the issues they have less knowledge on. Policy makers incorporate the public in policy formation by finding out which matters affect them most and acting on them. Hence, researches determine the accountability of policymakers ensuring that the decisions made by the policy makers are the best decisions that have the highest overall good attached to them. Therefore, researches lead to overall health gains as better ways of health policy formation are adapted ensuring the more relevant issues in the public are tackled in a strategic manner.

Reference:

Banta, D. (2003). The development of health technology assessment. Health Policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 63(2), 121-132.

Hanney, S. R., Gonzalez-Block, M. A., Buxton, M. J., &Kogan, M. (2003). The utilization of health research in policy-making: Concepts, examples and methods of assessment. Health Research Policy and Systems / BioMed Central, 1(1), 2.

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/119/6/891.full