Strengthening health systems research to achieve health-related Millennium Development Goals
A major obstacle to achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals is the weakness of the health systems in many low and middle income countries, and their struggle to effectively provide health care to populations in need. Research into health systems aims to improve health care delivery; however, multiple definitions of this type of research exist and this lack of clarity is negatively affecting the credibility, and hence progress, of this research. In a paper published in PLoS Medicine this week to coincide with the first Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, Robert Terry and colleagues from the World Health Organisation and allied organisations lay out working definitions of the three key research domains within the context of research to strengthen health systems; operational research, implementation research and health systems research...