SUSTAINABILITY OF HEALTH SYSTEMS RESEARCH - A CONCEPTIONAL FRAMEWORK BASED ON TWO PROJECTS

1) Background: Projects of health systems research frequently suffer from poor sustainability, i.e., the innovations generated in the project are not adopted as standards. As soon as project funding ends, the interest of researchers declines and the innovations will not make their way in the routine health care system. This failure is partly due to the fact that key partners of the project are very good researchers, but sustainability is not in the core of their interest. Only a few researchers are promoting the adoption of the project innovations in the routine system. 2) Methods: Based on the experience of two major research projects (GANI_MED, InGRiP) we developed a stakeholder-typology of research projects as a conceptional framework. For GANI_MED we distinguish the dimensions "relevance" and "identification", for InGRiP the dimensions "innovativeness" and "deployment". 3) Findings: The methodology was applied on two health systems research projects demonstrating its feasibility and applicability. 4) Conclusions: We conclude that the sustainability of research projects requires that this objective is a key concern of all partners from the very beginning. It will not just happen but has to be planned, promoters must be fostered and roles must be clearly defined.