Epidemiology, health systems research, and statistics/data systems / report of an ADAMHA workgroup.

  • United States. Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration.
Date:
1978
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Epidemiology, health systems research, and statistics/data systems / report of an ADAMHA workgroup. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    I. OVERVIEW A. Background This report presents results of the first comprehensive review of Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA) programs in epidem- iology, health systems research, and health statistics/data systems. Such a study could not have occurred at a more propitious time in the Agency's history. With increasing frequency and urgency, these three fields are being reviewed and linked at the Federal level to aid in developing a more informed understanding of our National health care delivery system. Together, they constitute a major portion of the emerging and growing area of health care research. Federal attention to these fields and their interrelations reflects the confluence of many National concerns as expressed by such groups as the U.S. Congress, the President's Commission on Mental Health (PCMH), the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), and the Office of Science and Tech- nology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President. At the latter's request, the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medi- cine, has recently undertaken a major review of the Federal and private health services research activities. Further, there have been recent legislative efforts to reorganize the National Center for Health Ser- vices Research (NCHSR) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to create the National Institutes of Health Care Research-- encompassing an Institute of Health Policy Research (from NCHSR); an Institute for Health Statistics and Epidemiology (from the NCHS); and a new National Center for the Evaluation of Medical Technology. The Public Health Service itself has recently reorganized the NCHS and NCHSR under the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy, Research and Statistics. This reorganization was intended to facilitate a greater degree of coordination among the epidemiological, services research, and statistical activities of these agencies and the health policy applica- tions of research findings. For the alcohol, drug and mental health (ADM) field, in particular, there could be no clearer note calling for a more rationally developed program of health care vesersh than that sounded by the President's Commission on Mental Health.1/ The Commission recently reiterated the need for an expanded health care information base, and articulated the consequences of current information limitations: Adequate planning cannot be accomplished without reliable infor- mation--long-term epidemiological and survey research are necessary to understand the incidence and scope of mental disorders in this country. The need for more precise demographic and socioeconomic mt ot