About Us
The Health Services Research Association of Australia & New Zealand was incorporated in Sydney in April 2001. It has been set up in response to a growing need to promote health services research in both Australia and New Zealand.
The purpose of the Association is to facilitate communication across researchers, and between researchers and policymakers, to promote education and training in health services research, and to ensure sustainable capacity in health services research in Australia and New Zealand.
The Association has grown over the years and now has a strong membership base of both individual health service researchers and corporate health services research groups, government departments and agencies. In recent years it has been able to employ an Executive Officer. As well as continuing to run a major health services research and policy conference every two years, it has been able to engage in a wider range of activities and opportunities for its members, including early career workshops, special seminars, and its corporate member forums. The Association maintains a vibrant website and issues a regular newsletter and email bulletins highlighting the latest HSR news, events and career opportunities. Behind the scenes the Executive is also working to promote health services research to research funding agencies and to policymakers.
At our 2019 Annual General Meeting in Auckland, Health Services Research Association of Australia & New Zealand member Dr Kim O'Donnell, who is a Malyankapa/Barkindji woman, mother and public health researcher, read and explained the importance of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and it's call for a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart was endorsed by the Association.
The objects of the Association are to encourage and promote the development and conduct of health services research, in order to promote improved health services delivery and improved health; and in particular to:
- Promote the development of sustainable capacity in the field of health services research;
- Facilitate and promote communication and collegiality among researchers engaged in health services research;
- Facilitate and promote the regular exchange of views across researchers and policymakers, managers, clinicians and other interested parties;
- Promote the education and development of researchers and others working in health services research;
- Encourage the development of strategically important research;
- Promote excellence in health services research;
- Advocate for appropriate levels of funding for health services research in Australia and New Zealand.
Health Services Research (HSR) is a multi-disciplinary research activity with an implicit objective of improving the health services patients receive. Thus it is an area of applied rather than 'basic' research - it uses theories of human behaviour from contributing disciplines, along with evidence from the medical sciences, to generate and test hypotheses about the delivery of health care.
Improvement of health services has many dimensions: better quality care (including care that is effective, timely and appropriate), more accessible care, more equal distribution of health gains from health services, safer care, and improved efficiency, both allocative and technical, in the provision of health care.
HSR differs from single-discipline research in that it seeks to understand these dimensions from multiple perspectives. It calls on knowledge from the contributing direct service disciplines of medicine, nursing, allied health, and psychology to understand dimensions of effectiveness, quality and safety of direct care in all its forms. It calls on the disciplines of psychology, sociology, political science, management science and health economics, to understand the social dimensions of care: access, distribution, timeliness, efficiency.
While HSR shares a concern for improvement of health services with practitioners of 'big-P' health policy (health ministers, senior bureaucrats), it is distinguished by its emphasis on a research basis for policy, in contrast to big-P policy practitioners who must consider expedient policy solutions and electoral support. HSR is underpinned by a belief that systematic investigation of health services, and the systems in which they are provided, is helpful in improving health outcomes.
The focus on services is what distinguishes HSR from other multidisciplinary health research activities. Population health (and most of 'public health') rightly focuses on the antecedents to ill-health and explanations for the distribution of health and disease. 'Public health' is historically an amalgam of population-based measures (eg, sanitation) and individual health services (eg, immunisation), but public health research is usually not principally 'service' focussed.
The audience for HSR extends across a broad spectrum, from innovators in bioscience to experts in indigenous health. Practitioners and researchers share an interest in understanding how health services contribute to their own domains and how they can be improved to increase the welfare of society more generally.
Other Definitions of Health Services Research
The Association currently has two Special Interest groups (SIGs) which provide a way for health services researchers with shared interests and expertise to participate in the development of specialist interests, exchange views, disseminate information, provide support, promote research, develop professional skills and organise activities such as workshops at the HSRAANZ Biennial Conference. Please contact the Executive Officer if you are interested in establishing a special interest group.
One of Association's best assets is the Executive Committee of leading health services researchers from Australia and New Zealand. Elected every two years by Association members the Executive Committee includes senior, mid-career and emerging health services researchers with a wealth of knowledge about the health system, health policy, funding and research methods. The Executive Committee meets monthly to oversee the operation of the Association, setting its business plan and strategic direction.
The Association is grateful for the support of its Organisation Members - universities, research institutes, government departments and agencies that are committed to building health services research capacity. As well as tangible benefits, Organisation Membership demonstrates an organisation's commitment to the field of HSR and raises its profile as a sector leader.