Health Services Research systematically evaluates the effectiveness of health interventions within real-world contexts. In contrast to clinical research, which concentrates on the development and assessment of medical treatments, health services research aims to identify optimal strategies for the organization, management, financing, and ongoing enhancement of care and assistance for patients and the broader population. This inherently interdisciplinary field integrates methodologies and perspectives from health economics, psychology, sociology, epidemiology, medicine, and management.

Throughout the course, we follow the advice of Prof. Dawn-Marie Walker who said “The best way to learn about research is to actually do it”. Students, either individually or in small groups of 2-3, will undertake their statistical analyses employing real-world data provided by a Swiss insurer. Important steps include getting a comprehensive understanding of the data and checking its plausibility in a real world context. Subsequent tasks include the formulation of a research question and the development of a statistical analysis plan. Descriptive and graphical analysis of the data pave the way for hypothesis testing and the subsequent interpretation of findings. 

Each of these steps will be explained and accompanied by illustrative code in the statistical software R. Prior experience with R or similar statistical software is advantageous, but not a mandatory prerequisite.

To attend the course / exercise, registration via e-learning platform OLAT is required. Registration is possible from 3 – 28 February 2025. The students themselves are responsible for checking the creditability of the course to their course of study.

Direct link to OLAT course: to follow

Weber, Jeremy G. 2024. “Statistics for Public Policy: A Practical Guide to Being Mostly Right (or at Least Respectably Wrong).” Chicago?; London: The University of Chicago Press. ISBN: 9780226830759

Walker, Dawn-Marie (ed). 2014. “An Introduction to health services research”. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1-4462-4739-6

Pflichtlektüre:

Kennedy, Peter E. “Sinning in the Basement: What Are the Rules? The Ten Commandments of Applied Econometrics“. Journal of Economic Surveys 16, Nr. 4 (September 2002): 569–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6419.00179.

Hill, A. B. 1965. “The Environment and the Disease: Association or Causation?” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 58 (5): 295–300.