Health Systems Research Methodology

COURSES AND PROGRAMMES CAN BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

The field of health policy and systems research examines how societies organise to achieve collective health goals, and how different actors and organisations interact in developing and organising health systems and programmes, and engage in health policy-making and policy implementation. In this course, we focus on research in and of health systems and we present research approaches and methods that can be used to comprehensively document and analyse how health systems function and how they can be improved to respond to existing and emerging health issues. Research methods and tools for policy research will be covered in the ACC Health Policy and Governance.

In this 3-week course, you will gain understanding of how health systems can be described and analysed through research approaches and methods, and how to conceptualise a small-scale health system research (HSR) project. The course draws on perspectives and methods from disciplines such as political science, sociology, anthropology and public health. Staff from the Department of Public Health at ITM and invited guest lecturers have extensive experience of HSR and draw on a rich portfolio of studies to illustrate key principles and skills taught in the course.