Articles appear every day on “major breakthroughs,” which later never pan out, while this one, full of successes, rarely made the news. This is the curse of health services research, which seeks to improve population health through improvements in access or delivery of care. When most people think of diabetes research, they’re thinking about a cure or a new medication. Those grand slams are exciting, but they rarely happen. Nevertheless, people want to see them. Donors want to support them. Organizations hire people to go after them.
Health services research is more about hitting singles, day after day. There’s no billion dollar payoff, no fame, no Nobel Prize. But it gets the job done, and it’s often more likely to change the health of most Americans.
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