Factors associated with open practices: results from the Canadian National Family Physician Survey.

Objective: Closed and conditionally closed practices appear to be increasing in many parts of Canada as reflected in the fact that more and more patients report difficulties finding family physicians who accept new patients. But the extent of, nature of, and factors related to open, closed, and conditionally closed practices are still largely unknown.

Design: This study used data from the 2001 National Family Physician Workforce Survey for secondary analysis.

When a physician marries a physician: effect of physician-physician marriages on professional activities.

Objective: To determine whether more Canadian family physicians are marrying other physicians and to examine the influence of physician-physician marriages on FPs' professional activities.

Design: Secondary analysis of a population survey (mailed questionnaire) using regression analysis.

Setting: Canadian family medicine.

What is important to continuity in home care?. Perspectives of key stakeholders.

In Canada, home care is growing rapidly. Each province takes a somewhat different approach to its delivery. Ontario uses a competitive bidding model to award contracts to community agencies that bid for service delivery rights.

Examining the role of health services research in public policymaking.

Conceptual, methodological, and practical issues await those who seek to understand how to make better use of health services research in developing public policy. Some policies and some policymaking processes may lend themselves particularly well to being informed by research. Different conclusions about the extent to which policymaking is informed by research may arise from different views about what constitutes health services research (is it citable research or any professional social inquiry that can aid in problem solving?) or different views about what constitutes research use (is it explicit uses of research only, or does it also include tacit knowledge or the positions of stakeholders when they are informed by research and are influential in the policymaking process?).