Health policy and systems research (HPSR) is vital for strengthening health systems, yet its development in West Africa remains constrained by limited capacity. To strengthen capacity, the West African Network of Emerging Leaders in Health Policy and Systems (WANEL) was created to foster peer learning and cross-country collaboration among early- and mid-career HPSR actors. This...
Medical research plays an important role in increasing and improving the health of society. Utilizing the results of research will enable the provision of both material and spiritual support for research centres. It is essential to establish mechanisms for effective communication between researchers and officials. It is of great importance to pay attention to tools that...
Egypt has made significant strides in strengthening its healthcare system, guided by Vision 2030 and aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite progress, challenges persist, including a high burden of non-communicable diseases, strained resources and a fragmented health system. The Universal Health Insurance System (UHIS), launched in 2018...
Zoonoses – diseases transmitted between animals and people – disproportionally affect low-resource countries (LRCs). The complex nature of zoonoses adds substantial barriers to implementing multisectoral policies to address them. Research on the policy process could help illuminate the significant factors influencing policy change among the complex systems involved in managing...
Despite the substantial health benefits of physical activity across the lifespan, most youth and adults are insufficiently physically active. To combat this trend, numerous policies and interventions have been developed, many of which have had modest effects. The limited effectiveness of such interventions has been linked to the lack of or minimal community involvement...
Measuring and monitoring health system performance and resilience is key for planning and managing resilience-building activities. Recurrent simultaneous shocks, particularly in fragile contexts which are home to nearly one quarter of the world’s population, underscore the need for resilient health systems able to provide the needed health care. This scoping review aims to...
Cannabis use initiation is highly common among youth. Harm reduction in cannabis use (HR-c) has proven effective in minimizing the potential harms of the substance. However, its adoption by health and social services (HSS) practitioner’s remains limited owing to several obstacles. This study marks the final phase of a broader research initiative. It aims to: (1) present the...
Exergaming, which combines physical exercise with video gaming, has shown benefits for individuals with chronic conditions. Implementation occurs at different levels and phases and influenced by various factors. To address the factors that influence the implementation of exergaming in healthcare, we aimed to explore stakeholder’s experiences of strengths, weaknesses...
Universal health coverage (UHC) requires strong institutional capacity, equity-oriented policies, sustained political and financial commitment and public trust. However, public confidence in many health systems, including Mexico’s, has been chronically undermined. This study aims to document Mexico’s health coverage trajectory by offering a comprehensive, disaggregated and...
Abortion policy is a highly contested area of health policy. Despite international recognition of abortion as a human right, legal restrictions persist in many countries, and recent decades have seen both liberalization and retrenchment of abortion laws. While much research has examined the politics and outcomes of abortion policy reform, less attention has been paid to the...
Evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) is essential for developing and implementing health policies and public health measures that promote, maintain and protect population health. Effective EIDM requires equitable collaboration between academia and practice to foster bilateral knowledge translation and exchange (KTE). This study analyses the barriers and facilitators...
Large pharmaceutical companies are evolving their innovation strategies, moving from closed R&D models towards open, collaborative ecosystems. Innovation labs have emerged as key organizational infrastructures in this shift, designed to accelerate the development, validation and adoption of new healthcare solutions. However, a systematic understanding of industry-led innovation...
Health researchers are increasingly encouraged to engage with nonacademic stakeholders and provide evidence of their engagement. However, evidencing research engagement and advancing the evidence base is challenging, partly because of the lack of available tools to prospectively track research engagement activities. To fill this gap, this Commentary introduces PROcess for...
Autistic adults experience disproportionately high rates of mental health challenges and encounter substantial barriers to care. While initiatives aimed at improving mental health literacy (MHL) offer one strategy for addressing these disparities, the processes through which such initiatives are co-produced with autistic adults and caregivers remain underexplored. Co-production...
Evidence ecosystems play a vital role in informing and shaping policy; however, little is known about how these systems function, particularly in diverse national contexts. This article presents a mixed-methods study designed to be the first to systematically map and characterize Brazil’s health evidence ecosystem, focusing on key institutions, actors, and practices across the...
There is a need to critically examine both how research infrastructures interact with the populations they serve and the perceived effects of these interactions. This paper reports on a contribution analysis-informed study of a research infrastructure and its place-based approach to working with local communities – the National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied...
Shared decision-making (SDM) is widely endorsed in international guidelines for the treatment of valvular heart disease (VHD). Despite evidence that the process improves outcomes and does not increase the burden of consultations, SDM has not been adopted as a standard of care across regions and diverse health systems. We conducted a 3-phase study co-led by clinicians and people...
The European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP RD) was an initiative that sought to integrate different rare disease strategies into a research ecosystem. This paper summarizes the work of the dedicated work package on Integrative Research and Innovation Strategy and outlines recommendations to facilitate alignment with National Plans and Strategies for Rare Diseases. We...
This study investigates operational efficiency in public general hospitals using a system dynamics (SD) model, focusing on resource allocation, patient flow and policy interventions. It explores the interactions between human resources, financial subsidies and patient visitation rates and their impact on hospital performance. An SD model was developed to simulate various...
We sought to distinguish, clarify and define the development process, concepts, attributes, types, prerequisites and consequences of organizational resilience, ultimately with the aim of improving relevant nursing strategies. Rodgers and Knafl’s evolutionary concept was applied to the concept analysis. Five databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, Web of Science, PubMed and Embase) were...
Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are essential for enhancing healthcare quality and informing evidence-based clinical practices. Despite the availability of strategies, their implementation remains challenging due to the complexities of managing translation CPGs into practice, such as barriers to change, resource limitations and high costs. This study examines management...
This study aimed to evaluate a participatory system dynamics group model building (GMB) process for local obesity prevention and policy. GMB workshops with n = 9 to n = 31 participants were held with local stakeholders involved in child health in a community setting in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The traditional number of two GMB workshops was expanded to a total of five...
The ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canada’s healthcare workforce and service delivery necessitate focused health system planning and delivery that prioritizes coordination, collaboration, and evidence-based strategies. A rapid evidence synthesis was commissioned by Health Canada to determine the impacts of the pandemic on the healthcare workforce and to identify...
Health systems worldwide are increasingly influenced by rapid and complex changes across various domains. Anticipating and responding to these changes is critical to ensuring the sustainability and effectiveness of health systems. Future-oriented research plays a key role in informing policy and planning, especially in the face of emerging global health challenges. This study...
Recognizing the complexity of cross-sector collaboration, holistic and innovative approaches are required to achieve birth equity. This project applied systems thinking and the Remove, Repair, Remediate, Restructure, and Provide (R4P) framework to understand and address systemic barriers to birth equity. This paper describes the systems thinking activities used to identify system...