Social work roles in collaborative research.

Social workers in health care settings may be most effective in the development and implementation of collaborative research studies which jointly involve academic and health service institutions. This article describes: organizational issues significant to the integration of research into a health service system; interpersonal issues that effect the perspectives of research and service professionals in the daily operation of the research project; and social work skills for collaborative research studies. An on-going 5-year collaborative research study of approximately 7,000 participants will be used as a case example.