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'Hard' and 'Soft' Data in Health Services Decisions Vincent Saliba Introduction "If I go out into nature, into the unknown, to the fringes of knowledge, everything seems mixed up and contradictory, illogical and incoherent. This is what research does; it smoothes out contradiction and makes things simple, logical and coherent." (Waltz et al 1991) Research delivers information. The more information we have about the population, the more we are able to influence and control the health services. Research may be descriptive, dealing with questions like "how many", "who", "what', or it may be explanatory, looking at "why". How is this information gained? There are a variety of methods available, however none have been found to be perfect. Hewison (1995) argues that research is done to help health professionals make better decisions. Practice, care, and the service they provide can only ever be as good as the knowledge on which it is based. Meanwhile, knowledge...

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