Brief reflections – from Vikki

Bibliographic Data

ID19508752
AuthorsVikki Entwistle (0000-0002-0856-4025, University of Dundee, corresponding author), Vikki A Entwistle
Year2010
Volume13
Issue4
Pages331-332
Publication date2010-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHealth Expectations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-6513 • E-ISSN: 1369-7625
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1369-7625.2010.00642_1.x
OpenAlexW1733376933
LanguageEN
References cited21

In my 3 years as Editor of Health Expectations, I have been privileged to consider a wide range of manuscripts relating broadly to the notion of service user or public participation in healthcare. With the help of generous and insightful reviewers from around the world, and a supportive Editorial Team and Board, I have been pleased to help authors get some of the best of these manuscripts into print. Papers published in the last 3 years have started to address many of the areas that the founding Editor, Angela Coulter, identified as warranting attention when she stepped down in 2007.1 They have, for example: considered the relationship between health literacy and participation2; generated insights into risk perception that can support improvements in risk communication3, 4; explored the information needs and preferences of people with limited literacy5; critiqued broad strategies for promoting self-management for long term conditions6; investigated attempts to support healthcare provider organisations to improve aspects of healthcare experience that patient feedback surveys have identified as problematic7; reported on initiatives to promote the more widespread use of well-evaluated decision aids8; examined the involvement of patients in issues relating to healthcare safety9; and explored the use of new communications technology to facilitate participation at both individual and more collective levels.10, 11 More generally, Health Expectations has continued to publish work on people’s expectations, experiences and evaluations of health services, and on the various ways in which their views can influence health care policy, health service delivery and health services research. For me, one of the strengths of Health Expectations is that publishing decisions are not constrained by strong commitments to any particular disciplinary perspectives or methodological approaches. Authors have shared original insights that they have generated – to give just a few examples – by conceptual analyses,12 literature reviews,13 structured surveys,14, 15 detailed qualitative investigations of current healthcare practices and experiences,16 comparisons of service users’ and others’ perspectives,17 reflections on policy,18 practical and methodological development work,19, 20 and evaluations of strategies and interventions intended to support participation.21 I have recently handed over to a new Editor in Chief, Professor Jonathan Tritter of the University of Warwick. Jonathan has been an active member of the Editorial Team in the last few years, and I am confident he will bring refreshing ideas for the strategic direction of the journal while preserving the idea that Health Expectations should offer and stimulate informed and critical debate about relationships between those with formal responsibilities for health care provision or research and those who have or might have health care needs. The need for such debate has not diminished in recent years. Many countries and healthcare systems are incorporating commitments to something like ‘patient centred’ care, and to various principles and forms of service user and/or public involvement, into legislation and policy. While the recognition these commitments give to the importance of appropriate relationships between services, their users and broader communities is likely to be welcomed by most readers of Health Expectations, the particular details of the commitments, and the processes and consequences of implementing them, are likely to be highly contested. The difficult economic climate raises further questions about the allocation of resources to support participation and about participation in the allocation and management of resources for healthcare more generally. I am sure that contributors to Health Expectations will continue to rise to the challenge and tackle these important questions, and I look forward to learning from their work

Business · Health care · Health literacy · Medical education · Perception · Political science · Public relations · Publication · Sociology · Chronic Disease Management Strategies · Engineering · Health Literacy and Information Accessibility · Medicine · Primary Care and Health Outcomes · Psychology · Marketing

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