Abstracts by key term: Difference between care and research
The German Medical Association defines health services research (1) as the scientific study of the provision of health-related products and services to individuals and the population (2) under everyday conditions. For this purpose, health services research examines how access to health and health care, how its quality and costs and ultimately how our health and well-being are influenced by the financing systems, by social and individual factors, by organizational structures and processes and by health technologies ( 3). The observation units include individuals, families, populations, organizations, institutions, municipalities, etc. In addition to this definition of content, the German Medical Association offers a methodological/functional definition of health services research, describes the general objective of health services research and names the systematics/components (input-throuput- Output-outcome) of health services research (1). In our article we would like to expand this characterization of health services research to include five further tasks: the distinction between care and research, the economic definition of over- and under-care, the description of the data and methods required for health services research, and the distinction between economically complete and incomplete health care analyses and ultimately the formal medical (in addition to the commercial) assessment of effort and return, including a method for identifying patient-relevant endpoints.