Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
Global Health. 2012 Sep 10;8:32. doi: 10.1186/1744-8603-8-32.
National and transnational health care systems are rapidly evolving with current processes of globalisation. What is the contribution of the social sciences to an understanding of this field? A structured scoping exercise was conducted to identify relevant literature using the lens of India - a 'rising power' with a rapidly expanding healthcare economy. A five step search and analysis method was employed in order to capture as wide a range of material as possible. Documents published in English that met criteria for a social science contribution were included for review. Via electronic bibliographic databases, websites and hand searches conducted in India, 113 relevant articles, books and reports were identified. These were classified according to topic area, publication date, disciplinary perspective, genre, and theoretical and methodological approaches. Topic areas were identified initially through an inductive approach, then rationalised into seven broad themes. Transnational consumption of health services; the transnational healthcare workforce; the production, consumption and trade in specific health-related commodities, and transnational diffusion of ideas and knowledge have all received attention from social scientists in work related to India. Other themes with smaller volumes of work include new global health governance issues and structures; transnational delivery of health services and the transnational movement of capital. Thirteen disciplines were found represented in our review, with social policy being a clear leader, followed by economics and management studies. Overall this survey of India-related work suggests a young and expanding literature, although hampered by inadequacies in global comparative data, and by difficulties in accessing commercially sensitive information. The field would benefit from further cross-fertilisation between disciplines and greater application of explanatory theory. Literatures around stem cell research and health related commodities provide some excellent examples of illuminating social science. Future research agendas on health systems issues need to include innovative empirical work that captures the dynamics of transnational processes and that links macro-level change to fine-grained observations of social life.
国家和跨国医疗保健系统随着全球化进程的快速发展而迅速演变。社会科学对理解这一领域有何贡献？本研究采用结构化的范围界定方法，以印度为视角，识别与该领域相关的文献。印度是一个“崛起的大国”，其医疗保健经济迅速扩张。该方法共分为五步，以尽可能广泛地获取相关文献。通过电子书目数据库、网站和在印度进行的手工搜索，共确定了 113 篇符合社会科学贡献标准的相关文章、书籍和报告。根据主题领域、出版日期、学科视角、体裁以及理论和方法方法对这些文献进行了分类。首先通过归纳法确定主题领域，然后将其归纳为七个广泛的主题。社会科学家在与印度相关的工作中关注了跨国卫生服务消费、跨国医疗保健劳动力、特定与健康相关商品的生产、消费和贸易以及观念和知识的跨国传播等主题。其他主题的研究文献较少，包括新的全球卫生治理问题和结构、跨国提供卫生服务以及资本的跨国流动。在我们的综述中发现了 13 个学科的代表，其中社会政策是一个明确的领导者，其次是经济学和管理研究。总体而言，尽管受到全球比较数据不足以及获取商业敏感信息困难的限制，这项针对印度相关工作的调查表明，该领域的文献正在不断增加。该领域将受益于学科间的进一步交流以及对解释性理论的更多应用。有关干细胞研究和与健康相关商品的文献为阐明社会科学提供了一些很好的例子。未来的卫生系统问题研究议程需要包括具有创新性的实证工作，以捕捉跨国进程的动态，并将宏观层面的变化与社会生活的细微观察联系起来。
