Remember from the beginning when we talked about the multi-disciplinary nature of health services research? We have also several times touched on the importance of combining methodological perspectives & thinking creatively about health service research. Here is a post that addresses these issues.
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Complexity Matters » Some Environments Foster Innovation-What Should Your Work Place Look Like?
This discussion of ideas and discoveries is key for any form of academic pursuit, but is particularly relevant to our work in health services research. Breakthroughs in understanding do not come from nowhere. They are built upon the foundation of earlier work by many researchers. Another great point made by the example of incubators made out of cars is that innovation for the sake of innovation should not be the goal of research. Innovation must be purposeful and useful in order to be meaningful. Yet another intriguing point brought up by this post is that researchers must collaborate in order to produce exciting and novel findings. Such collaboration is challenging in a world where every researcher competes with every other researcher for funding, publications, speaking engagements, etc. Competition can fuel innovation, but it can also inhibit it if competitors refuse to work together. I believe this discussion also brings up a further point of interest. Translational medicine is obviously a key issue as we move forward. Research findings must be utilized to positively influence health care outcomes. However, there is an unpredictable nature to scientific inquiry that may clash with this perspective. If one goes into research with a specific goal, one might miss out on important phenomena that become apparent during research. Some of the most important scientific discoveries were accidental (penicillin for example). Research must have an aim and be translated into practice, but it also must be allowed to evolve naturally and to change course if meaningful results present themselves.
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