The value of health partnerships: a practical approach to evidence.

Your April editorial(1) points out that there is little strong evidence of the effectiveness and impact of health links - or health partnerships, as they are often known - in terms of the processes and particularly the outcomes of health care. We believe this reflects the inherent complexity of the health systems and the consequent challenges for robust measurement. However, health partnerships use a range of evaluation methods that provide valuable, qualitative and descriptive information about change and performance management, which can help demonstrate the effectiveness of health partnerships.