June 5, 2012
Health Council of Canada. (2012). Progress Report 2012: Health care renewal in Canada. Retrieved from http://healthcouncilcanada.ca/tree/ProgressReport2012_FINAL_EN.pdf Monitoring progress on the accords—the 2003 First Ministers’ Accord on Health Care Renewal1 and the 2004 10-Year Plan to Strengthen Health Care2—is a key element of the Health Council of Canada’s mandate. But the challenge is to determine how […]
Posted in 2014 Health Accord, READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Canada, Health care reform, Indicators, Policy, Primary health care | No Comments
May 14, 2012
“The FSMB has developed this policy to encourage physicians who use social media and social networking to protect themselves from unintended consequences of such practices and to maintain the public trust by:
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Information technology, Policy, Social media | No Comments
March 20, 2012
“Policies about health systems can have profound impacts on citizens, patients, health professionals, and managers. For physicians, for example, the impacts can include changing their scope of practice (a governance arrangement), how they are paid (a financial arrangement), where they provide care (a delivery arrangement), and how their practices are supported in providing the types of care that citizens and patients value (an implementation strategy). Contextual factors are extremely important in shaping decisions about health systems, and policy makers have to work through all the pros and cons of different options before developing new policies on health systems.
In this paper, which is the second of a three-part series on health systems guidance, by considering issues raised during meetings of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Task Force on Developing Health Systems Guidance, we:
- Explore the links between health systems guidance development and policy development at global and national levels;
- Examine the range of factors that can influence policy development.
Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Evidence-based, Health care reform, Policy | No Comments
March 12, 2012
“Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) is often criticized for lacking rigour, providing a weak basis for generalization of its findings and, therefore, offering limited value for policy-makers. This Reader aims to address these concerns through supporting action to strengthen the quality of HPSR.
The Reader is primarily for researchers and research users, teachers and students, particularly those working in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It provides guidance on the defining features of HPSR and the critical steps in conducting research in this field. It showcases the diverse range of research strategies and methods encompassed by HPSR, and it
provides examples of good quality and innovative HPSR papers.
The production of the Reader was commissioned by the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (the Alliance) and it will complement its other investments in methodology development and postgraduate training.”
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Health planning, Policy, Public health | No Comments
January 17, 2012
To determine whether the services they provide are meeting population needs, local health departments (LHDs) use a variety of formal and informal assessments, including community health assessments and communitywide health-improvement plans. Despite these efforts, the services do not always meet the needs, for a variety of reasons, including competing funding priorities, political mandates, and natural shifts in population makeup and health concerns. Geographic information system (GIS) mapping software provides a promising tool to enhance priority-setting and resource allocation for LHDs by displaying complex geospatial information in an integrated and visual way, enabling staff to compare the geographic distribution of population health in a community (i.e., where services are needed) with the geographic distribution of LHD programs and expenditures (i.e., where services are provided). Using such an approach, LHDs can identify gaps between program services and community health needs. This report presents findings from interviews with 65 staff at four LHDs and three case studies to test potential solutions for how maps can be used to address the gaps between public health needs and LHD services. It describes options for accessing easy-to-use, no-cost GIS data and tools and suggests ways in which LHDs can integrate new GIS approaches into their activities.
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Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Health technology, Information technology, Policy | No Comments
November 29, 2011
“Background and Objectives: In the last few years there has been a steady uptake of mobile phone short message service (SMS) reminders to increase medical attendance rates. We undertook a review of studies that assessed the effectiveness of SMS reminders at increasing the uptake of appointments in health care settings.
Methods: We reviewed studies which involved a comparison of appointment attendance rates between patients who did and did not receive SMS reminders published prior to June 2010. We used meta-analysis methods to calculate the overall effect on attendance rates, stratified by study design and clinic type.
Results: The review criteria were met by 18 reports, made up of eight randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and 10 controlled observational studies. Across all studies, there was significant heterogeneity in the estimated effect measure of the relationship between use of SMS reminders and clinic attendance (I2 = 90 percent; p < .01), so a summary effect estimate was not calculated. Stratification by study design showed that the heterogeneity was due to the observational studies. The summary effect from the RCTs was 1.48 (95% CI: 1.23–1.72) with no significant subgroup differences by clinic type (primary care clinics, hospital outpatient clinics), message timing (24, 48, and 72+ hours before the scheduled appointment), and target age group (pediatric, older).
Conclusions: Short message service reminders in health care settings substantially increase the likelihood of attending clinic appointments. SMS reminders appear to be a simple and efficient option for health services to use to improve service delivery, as well as resulting in health benefits for the patients who receive the reminders.”
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Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Evidence-based, Information technology, Policy, Technology | No Comments
September 13, 2011
The lack of clarity and shared understanding regarding the scientific foundations of Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR) potentially has very negative consequences for the field. Disagreement over the value of different types of theoretical frameworks and research methods can lead to inappropriate evaluations of research proposals, contradictory reviews of the same paper, and delays in publication. Excessive time may be spent communicating broad frameworks to other researchers within HPSR, inhibiting progression to more detailed and specific conversations. Communication barriers may discourage inter-disciplinary collaboration, driving researchers back to their disciplinary safety zones, and creating potential for conflict that may discourage younger researchers who may be less secure in their career from staying in the field. As the second paper in this series concluded, there is an urgent need to build understanding across disciplinary boundaries. This final paper in the “Building the Field of HPSR” series turns to practical questions concerning how to remove structural barriers that currently inhibit the development of the HPSR field and thus unlock HPSR capacities.
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Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Policy | No Comments
August 23, 2011
“Following the First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Montreux in November 2010, PLoS Medicine commissioned three articles on the state-of-the-art in Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR). Three Policy Forum articles, authored by a diverse group of global health academics, critically examine the current challenges to the field and lay out what is needed to build capacity in HPSR and support local policy development and health systems strengthening, especially in low- and middle-income countries.”
Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Health care reform, Health equity, Policy | No Comments
July 29, 2011
“Does your organization disclose medical errors when they occur? Does the practice of disclosure increase or decrease your liability costs?
The reported evidence from several medical centers indicates that there are both patient safety and financial benefits with disclosing medical errors. However, a widely reported and controversial expert study offers significant cautions about the disclosure route. This paper provides an overview of medical error disclosure, and analyzes the financial impact of disclosure on health care organizations.”
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Health care costs, Policy, Prevention and control | No Comments
June 20, 2011
“This position paper analyzes the challenge of health services fragmentation, proposes a conceptual and operational framework for understanding IHSDNs, presents public policy instruments and institutional mechanisms to develop integrated networks, and proposes a “road map” for implementing IHSDNs in the Americas. The document focuses on the integration of the health services delivery function, and as a result it does not address mechanisms to integrate the health systems functions of financing and/or insurance. Furthermore, it does not address in detail the mechanisms to integrate programs targeting specific diseases, risks and populations (vertical programs) into health systems.”
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Health care reform, Implementation process, Integrated care, Policy | No Comments
