Combinatorial Regularity Analysis featured for first time
Regenstrief Institute is playing a pioneering role in the development and uptake by U.S.-based health services researchers of Configurational Comparative Methods (CCM) in research related to health and healthcare. Last week, Regenstrief Institute hosted online intensive courses in CCM taught by some of the world’s foremost experts in this innovative methodology.
CCM is a strategy that integrates key strengths of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. It allows systematic cross-case comparisons while retaining direct connections to specific cases, making it possible for researchers to conduct further in-depth exploration of findings using the nuances and complexities of individual cases. The method is especially useful in research designs with a small or medium number of cases. It enables cases to be transformed into configurations, or a specific combination of factors that produces a given outcome of interest.
The CCMs intensives hosted by Regenstrief’s Center for Health Services Research in 2017 and 2020 were both led by two of the world’s leading methodologists: Michael Baumgartner, PhD from the University of Bergen, Norway, and Alrik Thiem, PhD from University of Lucerne, Switzerland. The courses both recorded historic firsts, including the first time Coincidence Analysis was formally taught in the United States (2017) and the first time Combinatorial Regularity Analysis (CORA) was featured in a course anywhere in the world (2020).
This year, the online-only intensive was divided into a three-day beginners-level course and a two-day intermediate course. Due to high demand, both courses in 2020 sold out completely in less than two weeks. Participating scientists represented more than 40 scientific and academic institutions from across the U.S.
Participants who completed the beginners’ course also will attend a five-session practicum facilitated later this year by Regenstrief research scientist Edward Miech, EdD, and Deborah Cragun, PhD, of University of South Florida. The practicum will focus on giving participants additional hands-on experience in applying CCMs to health research through working with real datasets.
About Regenstrief Institute
Founded in 1969 in Indianapolis, the Regenstrief Institute is a local, national and global leader dedicated to a world where better information empowers people to end disease and realize true health. A key research partner to Indiana University, Regenstrief and its research scientists are responsible for a growing number of major healthcare innovations and studies. Examples range from the development of global health information technology standards that enable the use and interoperability of electronic health records to improving patient-physician communications, to creating models of care that inform practice and improve the lives of patients around the globe.
Edward Miech, EdD
In addition to his role as a research scientist at Regenstrief, Edward Miech, EdD, is a core investigator for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Center for Health Information and Communication, Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center. He also serves as an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine.
