Research topics

Projects at IRSS currently cluster around seven research axes:

1. Health systems and services: Framed into a multidisciplinary approach involving researchers with different backgrounds and focused on four levels of action: clinical, services, inter-organizational, and policy. This axis includes mental health and psychiatry components, focussing on acute and chronic problems from young children to the elderly.
2. Vulnerable populations, inequalities, law, and ethics: Aiming to Improve the health of vulnerable populations by analysing aspects such as health inequalities, law and health, heath ethics, and mental health;
3. Health sciences education: Attempting to improve healthcare by advancing the education and training of health professionals;
4. International health: Includes public health research and epidemiology in low-, middle-, and high-income countries ; - involves more than one country, and may be global;
5. Methodological tools for public health: Quantifying health problems and building evidence for how health determinants influence health systems. This axis seeks to develop methodological tools, both qualitative and quantitative, to assess the impact of disease, to gain a better understanding of the determinants and inter-related factors influencing health, and to understand and improve health information systems;
6. Clinical epidemiology: Consists in the application of general epidemiological principles in clinical research to improve knowledge regarding the etiology, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of disease.  This research area entails close collaboration with different clinical and laboratory departments;
7. Geriatric medicine: Focused on preventive, clinical, and social aspects of illnesses in elderly people and is a hospital-based specialization. The scope of geriatric medicine is broader than medical aspects and is mostly concerned with community care, psychological, social and ethical aspects, and organization of care.

   Research topics include health behaviors, health prevention and promotion, disability and aging, well-being of health professionals, promotion of mental health and medical psychology, medical education, health services and management of health facilities, ethics and legal aspects related to health, epidemiology, bio-statistics and information systems, and health and development.

Members of the Institute have o developed strong links between their research, teaching, and service activities. They contribute to the wider community by sharing expertise and collaborating with stakeholders outside the university setting.

The team is composed of academic, scientific (including researchers, research fellows outside the university, and grant-funded PhD candidates), and administrative staff:

• Academic: 37
• Scientific : 45
• PhD (registered at Graduated School): 56
• Administrative: 23