Peters D (2018) Health policy and systems research: the future of the field, Health Research Policy and Systems, 16:84, DOI: 10.1186/s12961-018-0359-0
Health policy and systems research (HPSR) has changed considerably over the last 20 years, but its main purpose remains to inform and influence health policies and systems. Whereas goals that underpin health systems have endured – such as a focus on health equity – contexts and priorities change, research methods progress, and health organisations continue to learn and adapt, in part by using HPSR. For HPSR to remain relevant, its practitioners need to re-think how health systems are conceptualised, to keep up with rapid changes in how we diagnose and manage disease and use information, and consider factors affecting people’s health that go well beyond healthcare systems. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a shifting paradigm in human development by seeking convergence across sectors. They also offer an opportunity for HPSR to play a larger role, given its pioneering work on applying systems thinking to health, its focus on health equity, and the strength of its multi-disciplinary approaches that make it a good fit for the SDG era.
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Pratt B and Hyder AA (2016) How can health systems research reach the worst-off? A conceptual exploration, BMC Health Services Research 16:1868, DOI: 10.1186/s12913-016-1868-6
Health systems research is increasingly being conducted in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). Such research should aim to reduce health disparities between and within countries as a matter of global justice. For such research to do so, ethical guidance that is consistent with egalitarian theories of social justice proposes it ought to (amongst other things) focus on worst-off countries and research populations. Yet who constitutes the worst-off is not well-defined.
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George AS, Scott K, Mehra V and Sriram V (2016) Synergies, strengths and challenges: findings on community capability from a systematic health systems research literature review, BMC Health Services Research, 16:1860, DOI: 10.1186/s12913-016-1860-1
Community capability is the combined influence of a community’s social systems and collective resources that can address community problems and broaden community opportunities. We frame it as consisting of three domains that together support community empowerment: what communities have; how communities act; and for whom communities act. We sought to further understand these domains through a secondary analysis of a previous systematic review on community participation in health systems interventions in low and middle income countries (LMICs).
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This brief outlines some of the challenges of incorporating gender analysis into existing research programmes, along with ways in which Research in Gender and Ethics (RinGs): Building Stronger Health Systems has responded to them. RinGs is a cross research programme consortium (RPC) bringing together three health systems RPCs – Future Health Systems, ReBUILD, and RESYST – to better understand gendered dynamics in health systems and to galvanise gender analysis in HSR.
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Pratt B, Merritt M and Hyder AA (2016) Towards deep inclusion for equity-oriented health research priority-setting: A working model, Social Science and Medicine, vol 151, pp 215-224, doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.01.018
Growing consensus that health research funders should align their investments with national research priorities presupposes that such national priorities exist and are just. Arguably, justice requires national health research priority-setting to promote health equity. Such a position is consistent with recommendations made by the World Health Organization and at global ministerial summits that health research should serve to reduce health inequalities between and within countries. Thus far, no specific requirements for equity-oriented research priority-setting have been described to guide policymakers. As a step towards the explication and defence of such requirements, we propose that deep inclusion is a key procedural component of equity-oriented research priority-setting.
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Pratt B, Allen KA and Hyder AA (2016) Health Systems Research Consortia and the Promotion of Health Equity in Low and Middle-Income Countries, Developing World Bioethics, doi: 10.1111/dewb.12116
Recent conceptual work has explored what features might be necessary for health systems research consortia and their research programs to promote health equity. Identified features include selecting research priorities that focus on improving access to high-quality health services and/or financial protection for disadvantaged populations in LMICs and conducting research capacity strengthening that promotes the independent conduct of health systems research in LMICs. Yet, there has been no attempt to investigate whether existing consortia have such characteristics. This paper describes the results of a survey undertaken with health systems research consortia leaders worldwide to assess how consistent current practice is with the proposed ethical guidance.
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Morgan, R; George, A; Ssali, S; Hawkins, K; Molyneux, S and Theobald, S (2016) How to do (or not to do)… gender analysis in health systems research, Health Policy & Planning, doi: 10.1093/heapol/czw037
Gender — the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for males, females and other genders — affects how people live, work and relate to each other at all levels, including in relation to the health system. Health systems research (HSR) aims to inform more strategic, effective and equitable health systems interventions, programs and policies; and the inclusion of gender analysis into HSR is a core part of that endeavour. The authors outline what gender analysis is and how gender analysis can be incorporated into HSR content, process and outcomes.
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