Health policy: getting it right | |
Evidence-based healthcare. How to make health policy and management decisions. 2nd ed. J A Muir Gray. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 2001 (xxxix + 444 pp). ISBN 0 443 06288 9. |
Muir Gray is an extraordinary man. He is Director of the Institute of Health Sciences at Oxford and the Project Director of the National Electronic Library for Health. He posits himself as the amanuensis of a very talented group of fellow travellers, and the benefits of his authorship are evident in the consistent style and integrity of argument presented in this book.
Evidence-based healthcare is organised in three sections: finding and appraising evidence; developing the capacity for evidence-based decision making; and getting research into practice. It is written for those who make decisions about groups of patients in order to “improve the competence of health service decision makers and to strengthen the motivation of any health service decision maker to use scientific methods when making decisions”. Thus, it represents one man’s vision for evidence-based healthcare and is a source of illumination and support for would-be evidence-based decision-makers. It is clearly not aimed at novice clinicians attempting to familiarise themselves with the technical tasks of critical appraisal or electronic information-searching techniques. This is the companion volume to such instructional texts. This edition shows signs of “second edition spread”, having grown from 270 to 444 pages over four years. New chapters cover evidence-based public health, consultation, and introduce post-modernism to evidence-based health care. Anyone with an interest in getting health policy right, from a new Health Minister to a hospital CEO faced with the third reincarnation of a Health network, or a clinician unexpectedly elevated to the ranks of hospital management, could profitably delve into this text. It will help clinicians to appreciate a systems perspective and the requirements for successfully implementing change. Few will attempt to read it cover to cover. If there is to be a systematic approach to health services delivery in Australia it will be led by clinicians and managers who can appreciate and work through the issues which Muir Gray identifies and discusses with such clarity and insight. I know of no book like this and, having read it, I would like to know more of the author. Donald A Campbell
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