RAND Review, RAND's flagship magazine, showcases RAND research on a variety of timely and relevant issues facing the world today.

RAND Review is published periodically by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit institution. The mission of the RAND Corporation is to help improve policy and decision making through research and analysis. Opinions are those of the authors and do not reflect positions taken by RAND, its board, or its clients.

About RAND Corporation:

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.

For 60 years, the RAND Corporation has pursued its nonprofit mission by conducting research on important and complicated problems. Initially, RAND (the name of which was derived from a contraction of the term research and development) focused on issues of national security. Eventually, RAND expanded its intellectual reserves to offer insight into other areas, such as business, education health, law, and science. RAND's innovative approach to problem solving has become the benchmark for all other "think tanks" that followed. See History and Mission.

RAND's tradition of problem-solving continues to this day. RAND conducts research and provides analysis to address challenges that face the United States and the world. Today, RAND emphasizes several areas of research that reflect the changing nature of a global society. Much of this research is carried out on behalf of public and private grantors and clients. RAND also conducts its own RAND-initiated research on issues that otherwise might not receive funding. All RAND work —every publication, database, or major briefing —is held to rigorous and sometimes painstaking review processes. Such exacting standards are the foundation of RAND's impeccable reputation throughout the world. See Standards for High Quality Research and Analysis and RAND Institutional Principles.

RAND improves policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. At times, grantors or clients may ask RAND to deliver research without suggesting a specific course of action. At other times, RAND may provide a range of solutions with an analysis of advantages and disadvantages. On certain occasions, RAND may formulate or even support clear-cut policy recommendations. What remains constant is RAND's commitment to public service by communicating its findings to a wide audience. This is accomplished in many ways. They include announcements to media, testimony by experts at RAND (often to the U.S. Congress), and publications, many of which are available free on this Web site. See Newsroom, Congressional Resources, and Reports and Bookstore.

RAND in the 21st century continues to address difficult challenges throughout the globe. In many ways, RAND's future reflects its past: anticipating emerging issues; establishing new angles of inquiry; and mapping the territory for responses by government, business, and society. Commitment to these high standards will continue to define RAND's work in the years to come.

View RAND Review Magazine, Spring 2008

News:

    * Diverse versus nondiverse workplaces
    * Deportable versus nondeportable immigrants
    * Dular versus non-Dular nutrition
    * Deal versus no deal for North Korea

COVER STORY: Baby Steps
Comparison of Neonatal Services Points to National Health Care Lessons
By Michael Hallsworth and Evi Hatziandreu

On the Cover:
Newborn arrives in Sweden on February 21, 2007.
HANNA ANDERSSON/WWW.IMAGEBANK.SWEDEN.SE

Download RAND Review Magazine, Spring 2008

PDF format, 2.11MB, 32 Pages.

Message from the Editor
Clues, if Not Answers

Graduate schools of public policy often use the case-study method of instruction, because any good case study can focus the mind on how to resolve a tricky situation in ways that might also apply to other situations. An exemplary case study distills many of the economic, statistical, financial, organizational, political, and even personality-driven complications of a major public policy problem into a mercifully manageable microcosm. The case study thus contains clues for solving problems beyond the bounds of the case study itself.

Our two top stories in this issue of RAND Review offer similar payoffs. In what amounts to an international series of case studies, the cover story compares neonatal services across the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Sweden. By zooming in on both the health status of newborns and the quality of neonatal care systems in these countries, Michael Hallsworth and Evi Hatziandreu detect systemic strengths and weaknesses, identify how each system of care can improve the quality of life from the very beginning of life, and suggest what the countries might learn from one another — not just about neonatal health care services but also about national health care management.

Likewise, the story and centerpiece about water resources highlight broadly applicable lessons from local case studies. Focusing on the short-term and long-term options available to managers of two water utilities in the drought-prone western United States, David Groves offers encouraging words for water managers across America and around the world who must slake the thirst of expanding populations while facing uncertain changes in global climate. Groves outlines new methods for evaluating water resource strategies despite the uncertainty, for quantifying the value of water-efficiency programs, and for identifying additional strategies to reduce vulnerabilities to climate change.

---

Write Comment
Please keep the topic of messages relevant to the subject of the article. Personal verbal attacks will be deleted.
Name:
E-mail
Homepage
Title:
BBCode:
Comment:
Code:*

Powered by AkoComment!