Evaluation Methods and Frameworks

Barbara Starfield, Professor John Hopkins University

Has done seminal research on primary health care She has also developed a performance framework that focuses evaluation on five features or indicators that have found to be essential for effective primary health care renewal: first contact (entry into the health system), coordination (use of other levels of health care), comprehensive care (curative, preventive, and rehabilitation), longitudinality (patient-focused care over time, continuity), and family/community orientation. These indicators have been used extensively both in the United States and Ontario in evaluating primary health care reform from both a systemic and patient-provider perspective.

Starfield 1994 Shi, Starfield Health Policy 60(3) 201-18 b_starfield

Macinko J, and Starfield B. "The Contribution of Primary health care Systems to Health Outcomes within Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Countries 1970-1998." Health Ser Res. 2003 June: 38(3): 831-65. Available from Medline.

Best Practices in the Evaluation of PHC Interdisciplinary Teams

This project will develop best practice guidelines for effective functioning of interdisciplinary teams, tools for evaluating the effectiveness of the teams and educational tools for providers to support team activities. http://www.chsrf.ca/research_themes/pdf/Inventory_of_Projects.pdf Data not available until March 2006. Contact: Loralee Gillis, Association of Ontario Health Centers loralee@aohc.org

Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH)

Under the Family Medicine Research Centre at the University of Sydney, the BEACH program was established in August 1999 to undertake health services research in general practice and primary care in Australia. The program continuously collects information about the patients seen, reasons people seek medical care, problems managed, and treatments provided in general practice in Australia. It uses a cross-sectional, paper-based data collection system developed over the past twenty-seven years at the University of Sydney. Data generated is used by researchers, government and industry. http://www.fmrc.org.au/beach.htm

Inventory of Primary Healthcare Evaluation Projects and Strategies in Canada (Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, Primary Health Care)

This inventory was first gathered by Jeannie Haggerty and Fiona Crossling, who surveyed decision makers and researchers across Canada in April 2005. http://www.chsrf.ca/research_themes/ph_e.php

Research Collective on the Organization of PHC services in Quebec

A new research synthesis on primary healthcare services in Quebec. The report analyses the findings of 30 primary healthcare projects and centers on three main issues: accessibility and continuity of services; factors associated with effects; and the processes governing the implementation of integrated, inter-professional collaboration mechanisms, and new information and communication technologies. http://www.chsrf.ca/research_themes/pdf/summary_report_e.pdf

Results-based Logic Model for Primary Healthcare (Centre for Health Services and Policy Research)

Results-based logic models linearly link resource inputs to activities performed, services delivered, and outcomes achieved. The model illuminates the activities that are potential levers for change; recognizes the unique features of primary healthcare; and identifies the way in which primary healthcare and other health sectors converge to affect health system performance and the health of the population. This logic model will be useful to primary healthcare policy makers, planners, managers, evaluators, and practitioners. http://www.chspr.ubc.ca/Research/primarycare.htm