Health Services Research for Decision-Makers: The Use of the Delphi Technique to Determine Health Priorities

In an effort to make health manpower training programs and health services research and policy analysis activities more responsive to health care needs in Washington State, a Delphi process was used to obtain perceptions of critical health problems from knowledgeable persons in the health services field.

The technique revealed a reasonable agreement among respondents that the following items, in order of priority, were the ten most important problems facing the citizens of Washington State.