DERMATOLOGICAL HEALTH-SERVICES RESEARCH

Health services research is a field that uses techniques from many oth er disciplines to study health care, especially its quality and costs. This article presents examples that illustrate how health services re search addresses the delivery of dermatologic care-for example, the de velopment and use of sound quantitative measures of the outcomes of ou r care, the implementation of strategies to improve these outcomes, th e assessment of patients' access to care and their satisfaction with c are, and determinations of the cost-effectiveness of our care. Followi ng these examples is a brief review of principles of experimental inqu iry and common methodologic pitfalls in health services research, as a guide for readers in the interpretation of published studies.