Quel Cadre Pour La Recherche Appliquee Au Systeme De Soins? =

We describe here a health services research program to improve societal and individual decision-making in the area of clinical medicine. The research falls under the general rubric of policy analysis, and includes the disciplines of scientific and clinical medicine, organization and management, psychometrics, social psychology, economics, and statistics. It requires analyses at the levels of rational and national health care policies, clinic and hospital practices, caregiver behavior, and caregiver/patient interaction. The program advances and integrates several diverse areas of investigation that have been developed internationally in recent years. It applies a conceptual framework to several important medical and surgical procedures, by assessing their appropriateness and cost-effectiveness, formulating and implementing gudelines for thie use, and assessing the influence of the gudelines.