A Crucial Tool for Understanding Changes in Health Systems and Health Care Delivery

The article by Bryan Weiner and colleagues (“Use of Qualitative Methods in Pub-lished Health Services and Management Research: A Ten-Year Review”) provides a review of the contribution of qualitative research to the knowledge base of health ser-vices research and how it has changed over the past 10 years (Weiner, Amick, Lund, Lee, & Hoff, 2011). Although qualitative studies still contribute to a relatively small (and apparently decreasing) share of the total number of articles in the nine major health services research and management journals, it is noteworthy that these articles are cited as frequently as articles using quantitative methods. Clearly there is a role for qualitative research in studies of health systems, but this role is still not well under-stood or even widely appreciated. One limitation of the study by Weiner et al. is that their review was restricted to nine health services and management journals. Although these include some of the most prestigious journals in the field, they do not necessarily reflect the full impact that qualitative research has had on the knowledge base or on health policy. We believe that the interest and acceptance of qualitative research has grown, as well as its importanc