Guest editorial summary on articles selected from the 2018 International Conference on Health Policy Statistics

摘要

Throughout the past 21 years, the International Conference on Health Policy Statistics (ICHPS), organized by the Health Policy Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association (ASA), has played a vital role in the dissemination process of health policy (and health services) statistics. ICHPS provides a unique forum for discussing research needs and solutions to the methodological challenges in the design of studies and analysis of data for health policy research. The aim of ICHPS is to create interactions among practitioners, methodologists, health service researchers, health economists, and policy analysts so they can exchange and build on ideas they will disseminate to the broader health policy community. The 12th International Conference on Health Policy Statistics (ICHPS 2018) was held in Charleston, South Carolina, January 10-12, 2018. With its theme "Health Statistical Science Care, Policy, Outcomes", the conference featured an ambitious program (http://ww2. amstat.org/meetings/ichps/2018/onlineprogram/index.cfm). Conference speakers were invited to submit manuscripts of their presentations for consideration in a special issue in Health Services and Outcomes Research Methodology, with us (JC and JB) serving as guest co-editors. Four articles appear in the December 2018 issue of the journal and five in the March 2019 issue. Extending upon the aim of the conference, the articles are grounded in innovative and timely research on advances in quantitative methodology regarding health services, policy, and outcomes research.