Improving the contribution of health services research to evidence based policy

Health services researchers may dream that the New Year resolution of policy makers is to make their policies more evidence based. There are a few things that need to happen in order to help them succeed. A recent policy brief provides an overview of major research priorities based on stakeholder involvement at national and European level, and it offers possible directions for improving the contribution of health services research to policy. The research has been conducted as part of the HSR Europe project. This project is led by a consortium of five major health services research institutes in Europe and is funded through the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission with the aims of identifying, evaluating and improving the contribution of Health Services Research to the health policy process in Europe.