Title: Improving the accuracy of measuring the impact of health research: a global perspective

Authors: Osama Sam Al-Kwifi

Addresses: College of Business, Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, P.O. Box 1664, Al Khobar 3195, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract: Evaluating the impact of health research is an important task for funding organisations in their quest to justify investments and prioritise spending on recognised areas. Many studies have been performed to investigate various categories of the impact of health research on society. I present three frameworks used by three health funding organisations to measure the impact of health research. Comparing these frameworks reveals a set of similar outcome categories, demonstrating that funding organisations often have common strategic outcomes. I identify a set of common challenges, leading to general guidelines with which to increase the accuracy of measuring the impact. I show that it is essential to use a comprehensive framework to assess the actual impact, which should be incorporated in a group of recommendations to check its reliability.

Keywords: research impacts; research evaluation; social impact; economic impact; performance indicators; performance measurement; healthcare; accuracy; funding organisations; investments; spending prioritisation; health funding; outcome categories; strategic outcomes; common outcomes; common challenges; MRC; UK; United Kingdom; National Health and Medical Research Council; NHMRC; Australia; Canadian Institutes of Health Research; CIHR; Canada; business solutions; globalisation; business advancement.

DOI: 10.1504/JGBA.2012.052389

Journal for Global Business Advancement, 2012 Vol.5 No.4, pp.271 - 284

Published online: 19 Mar 2013 *

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