In the last ten years, the concept of management by knowledge has gained growing attention in Swedish healthcare, as well as internationally. In Sweden, the most prominent example of management by knowledge is the National Guidelines, aimed at influencing both clinical and political decision-making in the health sector. The objective of this article is to explore the response among four Swedish county councils to the National Guidelines for Cardiac Care (NGCC). Empirical material was collected through 155 expert interviews with the target groups of the NGCC, politicians, administrators and clinical managers. Analysis of the responses to this multifaceted policy instrument was addressed by drawing on implementation theory (Matland 1995) and institutional theory (Oliver 1991). The NGCC are primarily based on the voluntary diffusion of norms. The county councils are a long way from having adapted all the means suggested by the National Board of Health and Welfare (NBHW): explicit prioritization, healthcare programmes and dialogue between the various actor groups. The high degree of ambiguity in the content of the NGCC, the inherent conflict and the multiplicity and uncertainty in the context of the county councils, have often resulted in avoidance and compromise. The strategic responses we observe can be viewed as an attempt to balance multiple constituents and achieve the various internal organizational goals. The ambiguity and conflict inherent in the policy of the NGCC influence the strategic responses made by the organization. The question remains how far management by knowledge can be applied in a political context.

There is a growing recognition of the importance of evidence to support allocative policy decisions in health care. This study is based on interviews with politicians in four regional health authorities in Sweden. Drawing on theories of strategic use of knowledge, the article analyses how politicians perceive and make use of expert knowledge represented by the National Guidelines, embracing both a scientific and a political rationale. As health care is an organisation with a dual basis for legitimacy - at the same time a political and an action organisation - it affects knowledge use. We investigate how the context of health care priority setting influences the conditions for knowledge use among regional politicians. Our findings illustrate the dilemma of political decision-makers and how they prefer to use expert knowledge. The politicians use this policy instrument in a legitimising fashion, as it will fit into the current political debate on more equal care. As an instrument for resource allocation the politicians noted that 'facts' per se could not provide them with a sufficient basis for legitimising their governing of health care. The dualistic organisational context makes knowledge important as a political weapon in negotiations with the medical profession.

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We report on novel transport and optical data for GaN/AlGaN modulation doped heterostructures grown by Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD). Variable temperature galvanomagnetic, resistivity, photoluminescence and photoconductivity measurements have been performed. Evidence for potential fluctuations is provided by the observation of weakly localized transport at low temperatures, together with a negative magnetoresistance due to disorder in the interface region. Additional evidence for a built-in electric field caused by the fluctuations near the heterointerface region is given by the observation of photoconductivity dips resonant with free excitons, indicating free exciton ionization. It is concluded that interface roughness, dislocations, and similar structural defects, have a strong influence on the transport properties of the two-dimensional electron gas in these structures.