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Year in Research 2009
This poll has ended.
Each year, David C. Colby, Ph.D., vice president of research and evaluation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, posts a list of 10 influential research articles--the RWJF Year in Research. In 2008, we did things a little differently and launched an online voting initiative where the public voted for their top articles from a list of nominated contenders. This year, once again, we are opening our doors for online voting, and we want to hear from you.
The Foundation has nominated 21 articles, supported by its grantmaking, which it believes had major policy impact, affected the field's work and thinking, or stood out in some other way. We'd like your help in choosing the 5 articles that most meet those criteria. We will publish the final list in early January.
Voting ends December 23, so please vote now.
Article 1
Public Health Delivery Systems
This article summarizes attributes of public health systems that vary in their structures and are difficult to study. The authors discuss organizational characteristics across four categories that include financing mechanisms and workforce characteristics.
Article 2
From Volume To Value
This study proposes two methods of payment reform that could facilitate higher quality and lower cost "episode-of-care payment" and "comprehensive care payment" (condition-adjusted capitation).
Article 3
The Third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (Guest Editorial)
This guest editorial describes the nutritional content of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and makes policy recommendations based on findings of the third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment (SNDA-III).
Article 4
What Does It Cost Physician Practices To Interact With Health Insurance Plans?
Physicians have long expressed dissatisfaction with the time they and their staff spend interacting with health plans. Participants in this national study spent an average of $68,274 per physician per year interacting with health plans.
Article 5
Medicare's Future: Cancer Care
This paper proposes a national initiative for Medicare patients with cancer. New legislative authority will be needed for comparative effectiveness research, quality measurement and payment reforms in Medicare.
Article 6
Issues and Implications of Screening, Surveillance, and Reporting of Children's BMI
In January 2008, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) convened a forum of researchers and practitioners working on the issue of childhood obesity to discuss the issues related to surveillance, screening and reporting of children's BMI. The authors of this article sought to capture the most salient points raised during the discussion.
Article 7
Association Between School Food Environment and Practices and Body Mass Index of U.S. Public School Children
The authors used data from the third School Nutrition Dietary Assessment Study (SNDA-III) to pinpoint elements of school menus that contribute to higher Body Mass Index.
Article 8
Health Care Cost Growth Among the Privately Insured
In this study, the authors examined spending growth among the privately insured between 2001 and 2006, separating the contributions of price changes from those driven by consumption.
Article 9
Slowing the Growth of Health Care Costs - Lessons from Regional Variation
This article by researchers at the Dartmouth Atlas examines the rapid growth in health care costs in the United States, and suggests the use of information from regions with low growth in costs to find solutions to the problem.
Article 10
Understanding New Registered Nurses' Intent to Stay At Their Jobs
In this study, newly-trained nurses reveal several factors that contribute to their unusually high turnover rates in hospitals—mandatory overtime and weak supervisory support.
Article 11
A Closer Look at the Economic Arguments for Disease Prevention
This commentary examines economic arguments for disease prevention services. While services that reliably produce net savings are rare in health care, many preventive services improve health at a lower cost than other medical interventions.
Article 12
Applying Health Services Research to Public Health Practice
This article provides a history of health services research focused on public health and summarizes the current state of the field.
Article 13
Massachusetts Health Reform: Employer Coverage From Employees' Perspective
This study provides an update on employers' responses under Massachusetts health reform in fall 2008, using data from surveys of working-age adults.
Article 14
The Role of Medical Liability Reform in Federal Health Care Reform
This article explores three reasons why bundling both medical liability reform and health care reform may prove valuable in health care reform development.
Article 15
Health Care and Public Service Use and Costs Before and After Provision of Housing for Chronically Homeless Persons with Severe Alcohol Problems
This study examines a Housing First program in Seattle that succeeded in lowering public costs while not requiring complete sobriety among chronically-homeless individuals with severe alcohol problems.
Article 16
Geographic Variation in Public Health Spending
This study of local public health agencies examines how agency spending varies by community and over time. The study shows that the top 20 percent of public health agencies spent over 13 times more money than the bottom 20 percent, putting some communities at a disadvantage.
Article 17
The Use of Electronic Health Records in U.S. Hospitals
This study examined all acute care member hospitals of the American Hospital Association to determine how many used Electronic Health Records (EHR), and examined specific characteristics to help identify barriers and facilitators to EHR adoption.
Article 18
Use of Inexpensive Technology to Enhance Adolescent Health Screening and Counseling
In this study, the authors examine the use of a health behavior questionnaire on a personal digital assistant (PDA) as a possible method for primary care practices to screen teens for risky behaviors, as well as their willingness to change those behaviors.
Article 19
Insights for Internists: I Want the Computer to Know Who I Am
Patients and health professionals agree that using technology to enhance self-care will allow physicians more time for the chronically ill. This study analyzed a series of focus groups that generated ideas from a diverse population of health care consumers and medical professionals.
Article 20
What Newly Licensed Registered Nurses Have to Say About Their First Experiences
This study analyzes comments from newly registered nurses about their first jobs and discovers that much could be done to reduce turnover and improve these young nurses’ experiences.
Article 21
Overall Effect of TCAB on Initial Participating Hospitals
Evaluating the total impact of Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB), a nurse-led quality improvement initiative, is challenging; many TCAB goals do not lend themselves to easy measurement and it is not necessarily desirable to use time and resources to quantify impact when the goal of TCAB is rapid improvement.
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