Mapping the Terrain: Public Health Systems Research
I was fortunate to be able to attend the Keeneland Conference on public health systems and services research (PHSSR) in early April, and to meet colleagues from around the country interested in building a research base in public health systems. One interesting dynamic in this emerging field is the role (as yet undefined) of the systems sciences in PHSSR. There are a number of researchers that bring methods and techniques from health services research, and the methodologies tend to focus on quantitative methods of research design and data analysis. While the health services research field can do much to inform a public health systems research agenda, a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic complexity between population health and institutional structure requires the application of systems sciences. This may include network analysis, agent-based modeling, systems dynamics modeling, or other related methods. This map of complexity science provides a hyper-linked diagram of the evolution of complexity science. The challenge for new researchers in PHSSR is to find opportunities to build some of these methodologies into an emerging public health research agenda.
