[Rehabilitation as a subject of health services research]

Since the mid-1990s, the lack of proper development in health services research in the healthcare system of the Federal Republic of Germany has been repeatedly criticised by healthcare policy-makers and experts alike, whilst also being the subject of a number of reform initiatives. Rehabilitation sciences, which were established in Germany as an autonomous scientific discipline in the early 1990s, could benefit in terms of conception, methodology and organisation from these activities and the new interest bestowed on healthcare sector research. At the same time, the converse also holds true since from the very beginning health services research has played a particular role in the development of rehabilitation sciences-unlike the role it has played in the overall healthcare system. The complex nature of the areas of research covered by rehabilitation, together with the theoretical plurality and methodological diversity associated with it, may be ascribed to the fact that (up to the present) this sector has lacked a broader framework connecting together health research concerns and issues. This article presents a comprehensive overview of current concerns and issues as evidenced in publications of the past 15 years that make an explicit contribution to health services research. It highlights the rehabilitation system research undertaken in the past decade as a central plank of health services research. Furthermore, it also investigates the backdrop to health services research in rehabilitation in terms of its development, its research concerns, its methodology, its organisation and its infrastructural embeddedness.