MEDICAL SOCIOLOGY AND HEALTH-POLICY - WHERE ARE THE CONNECTIONS

The attempt to assess the impact of medical sociology on health policy encounters operational difficulties regarding what should be counted. After reviewing these difficulties, we argue that there is potential interest among policymakers for sociological contributions to policy d ebates, but that policy impact has been limited by sociologists' ambiv alence, academic career considerations, and by health research becomin g a distinct field of research. Suggestions for increasing sociologist s' policy impact include attending to policy relevance in both the des ign of studies and the dissemination of results and by sociologists' b ecoming more oriented to the field of health policy research.