¶ … Starting Point One of the great advantages of performing research is that one is never alone when doing so: Even highly innovative research is based on what has gone before, and every researcher has as a guide all those who have previously engaged with the same ideas. This is the case with my research, which focuses on trauma centers. I have taken as a point of comparison and contrast -- really more as a starting point than anything else -- Christopher Gill's Advance Study in Research Methods in Public Service.

His focus is the ways in which many American trauma centers are insufficiently prepared for a major natural or social disaster. Gill's focus analyzes how operations research (a form of mathematical modeling) can be used to assess medical care by examining how individuals as...

In certain ways, this type of analysis is analogous to the kinds of models that economists make when considering the ways in which people make decisions about how to utilize their resources.
All institutions have limited resources. Even the most well-funded projects and enterprises have finite possibilities. When the arena is as profoundly important (as literally vital) as trauma response, it is essential that the best possible decisions be made. Even if there were unlimited resources for trauma care, there would still be the issue of how to make the best choices. One strategy in assessing how to improve trauma care is to look at what one could call the more technical aspects such as staffing decisions, plan of the physical building, drug protocols, etc. This…