A review of conceptual barriers and opportunities facing Health Systems Research to inform a strategy from the World Health Organization

Overview

This paper was commissioned to provide a conceptual underpinning for the WHO Global Strategy on Health Systems Research that is currently under development. It reviews existing definitions, terms, conceptual models, taxonomies, standards, methods and research designs which describe the scope of health systems research as well as the barriers and opportunities that flow from them. It addresses each of the five main goals of the WHO Strategy on Research for Health, including organization, priorities, capacity, standards and translation.