TU, Germany
Setting
In general “Setting” seems to be understood as the place where something occurs. The “setting” for example is the where a technology is implemented.
There seems to be some confusion for this term since sometimes it seems to be a geographical concept (national setting, regional setting, local setting), sometimes seems to be a concept referred to the type of health system (NHS-setting, SHI-setting) and sometimes a concept related to the type of care or institution (ambulatory setting, hospital setting, academic setting).
When a sentence like “In our setting…” is found, it is not clear which of the above it refers when further information is not provided. Thus the term shouldn’t be used alone, since it might be difficult to interpret. A more accurate description of what is meant in each case (i.e. geography, health system, institutions, etc.) should be clearly preferred.
Context Specific
The term context seems to refer to quite the same issues as the term “Setting” (see “Setting”) and in general it is being used interchangeably. The term “Context” however seems to be used with the intention to refer more explicitly to further aspects which characterize the “where” a technology is applied, such as cultural issued, preferences, interests, etc. “Setting” seems in contrary to be used when referring only to the characteristics of the place discussed previously (see “Setting”).
“Context” seems to cover more than “Setting” and be used when referring to the whole environment.
“Context Specific” seems to be used to describe such aspects or issues related to the implementation of technology which varies depending on the “where” it is the technology applied. The term it is frequently used to highlight that a piece of evidence might not be transferable to the own situation since the findings could have been different had the evidence be produced elsewhere. In this form “Context Specific” seems to be used as an equivalent to saying “Not Generalisable” or “Not Transferable”.