Main description:

Evaluating Improvement and Implementation for Health describes modern evaluation methods in healthcare and policymaking, and challenges some of the assumptions of the evidence based healthcare movement:

Are innovations always an improvement?Are they always worth it?Can they be implemented?More importantly, should they be implemented?
These are questions with practical consequences and questions which evaluation can answer - if we choose the right methods. This book will help you do just that - match the right evaluation method to the questions being asked. Pragmatic, even-handed and accessible, Evaluating Improvement and Implementation for Health provides an overview of the many different evaluation perspectives and methods used in the health sector. Suitable for health practitioners, managers, policy advisers, and researchers, its practical and multidisciplinary approach shows how to ensure that evaluation results in action."This book is to be welcomed for its wide ranging introduction to the many approaches to evaluation."
Carolyn M ClancyFormer Director, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) "For anyone looking for a readable and complete introduction to evaluation, the search ends here. This book gives an overview of evaluation in action for making better decisions about how to improve health outcomes for individuals, communities, and nations. The emphasis on including assessments of implementation is refreshing and the examples throughout the book illuminate the concepts and pique the reader's curiosity right to the end."
Dean L. Fixsen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Senior Scientist, & Co-Director, National Implementation Research Network, USA

Contents:

Foreword
AcknowledgementsPart I Introduction: Concepts
Evaluating health interventions, improvements and theirimplementation
Evaluation tools and concepts
Quick start: How do I plan and carry out an evaluation?
Designs

Part II Introduction: Example evaluations - do they answerusers' questions?
Evaluating interventions to patients and patient performance
Evaluating interventions to professionals and performanceevaluations
Evaluating interventions to health services and performance
Evaluating interventions to health systems and performance
Evaluating population health interventions and publichealth service performance

Part III Introduction: Evaluation subjects
Evaluating implementation
Evaluating digital health technologies
Evaluating complex social interventions
Evaluating return on investment and value improvements
Economic evaluation

Glossary
References
Index