The Advanced Research Institute on "Health Services Systems" was held under the auspices of the NATO Special Programme Panel on Systems Science as a part of the NATO Science Committee's continuous effort to promote the advancement of science through international cooperation. A special word is said in this respect supra by Pro fessor Checkland, Chairman of the Systems Science Panel. The Advanced Research Institute (ARI) was organized for the purpose of bringing together senior scientists to seek a consensus on the assessment of the present state of knowledge on the specific topic of "health services systems" and to present views and recom mendations for future health services research directions, which should be of value to both the scientific community and the people in charge of reorienting health services. The conference was structured so as to permit the assembly of a variety of complementary viewpoints through intensive group discussions to be the basis of this final report. Invitees were selected from allover Europe and North America, including observers from the major international organizations involved in health ser vices research, to provide the experience and expertise necessary to make the issue of "health services systems" val id and significant.

Inhalt
Special addresses.- Opening address of the NATO ARI-HSS Conference.- Adress from the Systems Science Panel.- Health Services Systems in the Western World: An International Perspective on Problems and Prospects.- Section I Re-orienting Health Services-Application of a Systems Approach.- A Systems view of Health Services and Their Reorientation: Summary of the Conference Proceedings and Background Papers.- Analysis of Health Services Systems-A General Approach.- A Systems Approach and Health Service Systems: Time to Re-think?.- Section II Tools for doing it.- Some Aspects of Alternative Approaches to Planning.- Manpower Planning and Health Services Systems.- Financing and Health Services Systems.- Cost-effectiveness and Health Services Systems A Systems Approach to the Assessment of Health Care.- Health Services Systems and Information Services.- Research and Development and the Health Systems Approach.- Section III National Experiences.- The French Health Services System.- The Dutch Health Services System: Problems and Measures of Interdependencies and Control.- The Italian Health Services System.- Health Services in the United States: Groping Toward a System?.- The Health Services Systems in Belgium.- The Health Services System in Turkey.- The Health Services of Norway: on the Road to a Political System.- The Canadian Health Services System.- The Health Services System of the United Kingdom.- The Changing Health Services System in Greece.- Participants.