Goal setting and knowledge generation through health policy and systems research in low- and middle-income countries.

Abdul Ghaffar,Jiayin Xue,Bhavini Murthy,Nhan T Tran

doi:10.1186/1478-4505-12-39

Abstract

The importance of health policy and systems research (HPSR) and its role in aiding health system reforms has been increasingly recognized in recent years within the World Health Organization (WHO). An assessment of the 71 WHO Country Cooperation Strategies (CCS) that are publicly available and were published in English in 2012 was completed to determine the extent to which HPSR goals are incorporated at the global level. A review was then conducted using a Medline database search to determine the number of articles published by countries with HPSR goals. Sixty-six out of the 71 (93%) available CCS describe HPSR as an objective or strategy for achieving health system priorities. However, only 52 out of the 66 countries (79%) have any publications involving HPSR during their most recent CCS cycle. This suggests that although health systems strengthening through HPSR is increasingly emphasized by the WHO and country health ministries, actual HPSR progress may still be lacking. There is a need and an opportunity for the WHO and other global health agencies to focus on providing the necessary tools and building HPSR capacity in low- and middle-income countries.

Highlights

Despite recent advances in medicine and technology, many countries still struggle to build effective health systems that can successfully deliver life enhancing interventions
In order to understand how these goals affect research at the country level, a Medline database search was conducted to determine if there is a correlation between the volume of health policy and systems research (HPSR) literature published in countries where HPSR goals are clearly articulated in the Country Cooperation Strategies (CCS), assuming that peer-reviewed publications are reflective of the amount of research activity undertaken
HPSR goal setting through country cooperation strategies In 1998, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended the development of country-specific strategies to improve coordination between health sector partners [4]

Summary

Background

Despite recent advances in medicine and technology, many countries still struggle to build effective health systems that can successfully deliver life enhancing interventions. All but 5 of the CCS describe research in one of the health policy and systems building blocks as a strategy for achieving health systems strengthening and development. Of the 71 CCS reviewed, 66 included some goals or objectives that related to the use of HPSR The majority of these include some emphasis on knowledge generation and the use of research evidence in policy and other decision making. The search strategy for the analysis included articles under the categories of “Health Care Economics and Organizations”, “Health Care Facilities, Manpower, and Services”, “Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation”, and “Health Services Administration/Economics”.a These were chosen after reviewing all of Medline’s healthrelated headings, and all of the aforementioned health systems building blocks are included under one or more of these overarching categories, and the same literature search was performed for all countries of interest. India had more than 50 publications from its previous CCS cycle, but the current cycle started in 2012, and our review only included publications from January to December, 2012

Discussion

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Findings

Conclusions

WHO: Strengthening Health Systems to Improve Health Outcomes