Our Research

The Health Services Research Focus Area includes social and behavioral science, population health, and translational research at NEOMED. Our current research is in the following domains:

• Health Services Delivery
• Social Determinants of Health
• Translational Research / Implementation into Practice
• Medical Education / Healthcare Workforce
• Integrated Behavioral Health and Primary Care
• Population Health

What is Health Services Research?

Health services research comprises a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the way organizations, structures, processes, technology, social factors, and personal behaviors influence access, quality, costs, and physical and behavioral health. Health services research seeks innovative and effective ways to organize, manage, finance, and deliver high quality care to improve population health. Health services research spans multiple levels, including individuals, families, organizations, institutions, communities, and populations.

Healthcare systems are complex organizations that can be slow to respond and adapt to changing circumstances. While critical to medicine, the translation of technological and scientific advances into practice is equally important to improving care, bettering health outcomes, and addressing health disparities. Gaps in our healthcare system, along with social determinants of health, fuel chronic health conditions contributing to health disparities, morbidity, and mortality, as exacerbated by the recent COVID 19 pandemic. Although social, political, and environmental factors are increasingly recognized as the fundamental causes of poor health outcomes, healthcare systems struggle with addressing these upstream factors affecting health encounters.

Our researchers: