Collaboration between health services managers and researchers: making a difference?

Area of Science:

• Health services research
• Management science
• Organizational capacity building

Background:

• The NIHR Service Delivery and Organization Management Fellowship programme facilitates health care managers' involvement in research.
• Understanding the impact of this involvement on research quality and managerial capacity is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if health care managers' participation in research projects improves research quality and relevance.
• To assess whether such collaborations build capacity within the managerial community.

Main Methods:

• The study employed face-to-face interviews with management fellows and chief investigators.
• Data were gathered from 10 case study sites.
• Thematic analysis using an adapted Kirkpatrick framework guided the evaluation.

Main Results:

• Management fellows enhanced research validity, efficiency, and credibility by leveraging contextual knowledge for participant recruitment, data collection, and dissemination.
• Managerial capacity was developed via formal training and exposure to new ideas and practices.
• Key enabling factors included the fellow's NHS experience, mutual respect, and clear project understanding, while foregone opportunities represented a cost.

Conclusions:

• Collaborations between health care managers and researchers demonstrably improve research relevance and quality.
• These partnerships effectively foster research capacity development among managers.
• Successful integration depends on project-fellow alignment and clearly defined objectives.