Understanding context in healthcare research and development.

This is a review of a paper by Bayliss et al in the Annals of Family Medicine that argues that traditional research methods 'are not well suited to addressing multi-faceted problems, such as understanding the complex interaction of multi-morbid chronic illness with social, environmental and healthcare systems'. Bayliss et al conclude that research that can be relied on requires methods that are 'participatory, mixed methods, multi-level, and engage communities'.