Postgraduate Research Degrees – HRB PhD Scholars Programme in Health Services Research

Background to programme

Health services research (HSR) is one component of a high quality, accountable and reflective health system. Health services research is “a multidisciplinary field of enquiry, both basic and applied, that examined the use, costs, delivery, organisation, financing and outcomes of healthcare services to increase knowledge and understanding of the structure, processes and effects of health services for individuals and populations.” (Institute of Medicine, 1995). In the Irish context, as elsewhere, challenges in the management of chronic disease and long-term care in an ageing society require urgent attention. This PhD Programme will thus focus on the broad theme of ‘integrated healthcare’. Integrated healthcare is seen along a continuum from full segregation through linkage (adequate referral across systems), coordination (pathways of care across systems) and full integration (pooled resources in one system) (Leutz, 1999). The theme of ‘integrated healthcare’ has a second intention. As a PhD Programme and a Programme in HSR, the aim is to provide both a theory-enhancing and change-promoting research. It is envisaged that Scholars are exposed to the challenge of contributing to theory in their respective disciplines as well as to finding answers to applied healthcare problems. Doctoral training should grow the intellectual as well as R&D capacity of the system if it is to be successful. The Programme team will work to ensure that projects and personnel can be truly interdisciplinary and can demonstrate the value of a multidisciplinary approach to healthcare challenges. The challenges of fragmented care, of combining health and social care, of working in a two-tiered funding system and of working without a unique patient identifier are among those to be addressed in this Scholars Programme.