Call for Papers
2008 State Health Research and Policy Interest Group Meeting
Saturday, June 7, Washington, DC

In conjunction with the
2008 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting
June 8-10, Washington, D.C.

The State Health Research and Policy Interest Group Meeting's Call for Papers offers researchers, policymakers, and practitioners the opportunity to share recent state-level research that emphasizes the unique challenges of working within a state policy and political environment. Papers that demonstrate innovative approaches to addressing state policy research needs, sound applied policy research methods, effective strategies for collaborating with state agencies and policy decision makers, and promising communication tools are being sought.

Abstracts that employ research, collaboration and communication strategies such as the following examples are of interest:

• Innovative application of national data sets or the integration of state and/or local data to meet the policy information needs of one or more states.
• Novel approaches to state-specific research that add to current understanding of a particular topic, including methodological issues related to analysis of qualitative data or quantitative data.
• The integration of literature, best practices, and primary and secondary, qualitative and quantitative data sources to shed light on the complexity of a state level policy issue.
• Research/policy collaborations that clearly identify and frame the questions that guide research and the research/policy process.
• Efforts or strategies to identify and frame key messages from the research that are important to policymakers.
• Effective strategies for communicating or translating complex health services research into policy options, especially options that state policy makers have adopted and/or generalizeable lessons that have emerged from these partnerships.

Areas of particular interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Designing and implementing new policy strategies to encourage improved quality and efficiency at the state level
• Developing alternative benefit designs in public programs or private insurance markets as a quality improvement and cost containment tool
• Insurance market reforms to include new purchasing mechanisms, risk pooling, benefit and/or coverage mandates, and employer requirements
• Developing systems to assess and improve health care efficiency including care coordination and information technology
• Innovations to reduce errors and eliminate waste in the health care delivery system
• Studies of state health care reform efforts, including papers on innovative reform elements, the effects of large-scale reforms, and the political process of reform
• Innovative use of information technologies to impact health care access, cost, quality of care and/or utilization.

Criteria for Evaluating Submissions

All papers will undergo blind peer review and will be evaluated using the following criteria: (1) importance of the policy topic; (2) significance and appropriateness of techniques and methods for advancing state health policy; (3) quality and originality; (4) applicability across states; and (5) clarity of writing and presentation.

Papers not selected for oral presentation will be automatically considered for poster presentation. Notifications will be sent by March 3.

Instructions

Only abstracts submitted online will be considered. Submissions must be received by 5:00 p.m. EST on Friday, February 8, 2008 to be considered. We encourage you to submit early to ensure prompt confirmation and processing.

To submit:

1. Visit academyhealth.org/interestgroups/shrp/abstracts/abslogin.cfm

2. Complete all fields in the submission form. Incomplete information or papers submitted as an e-mail attachment will not be considered for review.

3. Do not use tables, graphs, special formatting (e.g. bold and underline), or scientific symbols. Submissions with these features will not be considered.

4. The abstract limit: 500 words. The abstract should have enough information for the review committee to judge the submission based on the above criteria.

More information

The State Health Research and Policy Interest Group Meeting is a one-day meeting featuring plenary and poster sessions on topics of interest to state-level researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. For meeting details, visit www.academyhealth.org/interestgroups/shrp/

Additional information about the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting (ARM), immediately following this meeting, is available at www.academyhealth.org/arm. You may also submit an abstract for one of the twenty-one themes for the ARM. Separate submission is required. Visit www.academyhealth.org/arm/abstracts/ for instructions. ARM abstracts are due January 15.

Please note that if you wish to submit an abstract to the Annual Research Meeting and the State Health Research and Policy Interest Group meeting, you must submit separately to each. Submission to one meeting does not imply review by the other.