The International Hemoglobinopathy Research Network (INHERENT) focuses on studying genetic modifiers through large, multi-ethnic genome-wide association studies involving paediatric and adult patients with haemoglobinopathies. The growing integration of genetics and genomics into global healthcare has highlighted the need for standardized policies on biospecimen and data handling...
Integrated knowledge translation (IKT), or research co-production, is a research approach where researchers and knowledge users carry out a study as equal partners. A growing evidence base demonstrates that IKT produces research findings that are useful, usable and used. Despite knowing how IKT works, we have yet to ascertain how it operates. We conducted a realist review to...
Access to healthcare in Canada remains a significant issue, with over one in five people lacking attachment to a regular primary care provider. To address this, patients, health professionals, researchers and policymakers are advocating for health system transformation aimed at improving access and achieving the quintuple aim. As a result, research funding increasingly...
Health policies must be continually updated as new evidence is generated to ensure the optimal delivery of health interventions and prevention measures. Models are often used to study health problems, but their complexity limits their use by policy-makers. One way to facilitate their use among non-modellers is to develop user-friendly interfaces and make them available online. We...
Clinical governance of hospital pharmacy services aims to ensure the delivery of pharmaceutical care that maximizes positive outcomes for patients. Good clinical governance incorporates service-related data to evaluate and improve care delivery. National-level clinical governance frameworks available in Australia provide limited information on auditable metrics to evaluate...
Whilst significant efforts have been undertaken to strengthen the role of evidence in policymaking, there is still limited work aiming to strengthen the role of evidence in electoral platforms, which are provided to inform citizens’ voting decisions in democratic systems. This study aims to develop a guide targeted at political parties and candidates to support them in developing...
In the United Kingdom the government’s new health mission aims to reduce the burden on healthcare services by shifting from treating poor health to prevention. Delivering this requires action on health in policy arenas outside of the health sector such as urban development, as urban environments are key health determinants. However, change is challenging in complex and long...
For this Commentary, we selected papers from those in this journal’s Thematic Series on health research systems’ pandemic response. The calling notice for papers suggested possible use of a WHO framework for analysing health research systems (HRSs). Whilst it was not widely used in the reported studies, it did provide the basis for the two main, overlapping, topics for analysis...
Countries around the world have committed to universal health coverage (UHC), a global vision that affirms the right for all people to access essential healthcare, when and where they need it and regardless of their ability to pay. UHC, as a political commitment, developed as part of the Sustainable Development Agenda in 2015 and, more recently, at the United Nations High-Level...
Recognizing the importance of menstrual health and hygiene, governments worldwide, including India, are working towards improving awareness, infrastructure and access to essential products and services. Odisha’s state-led “Khushi” programme, launched in 2018, is one such initiative providing free sanitary napkins to schoolgirls in government and government-aided schools to...
The WHO Regional Office for Africa reviewed evidence-based interventions designed to enhance health systems outputs: access, quality, demand and resilience. Although there is eagerness to expand interventions, the extent to which they can be successfully scaled remains mostly unknown. This study evaluated their potential for scaling to enhance system outputs. Underpinned by two...
The Health Information System (HIS) in public healthcare services in Serbia was introduced in 2008, with the first comprehensive evaluation of its maturity conducted in 2021. Since then, several improvement initiatives have been implemented. This study aimed to assess the extent of HIS advancement between 2021 and 2024 and to identify both the desirable and realistic future...
The effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and subsequent policies in the Netherlands extended beyond healthcare, impacting other societal systems such as education. This study aims to conceptualize a coupled education–healthcare system during a pandemic and identify key variables and relations that affect the accessibility of both systems. This is essential...
Coproduction is an inclusive approach for improving health and social care services, and coproduction research mostly focuses on participating stakeholders who are not researchers. Programme theories are important for designing, evaluating and disseminating change initiatives; however, few empirical studies on quality improvement initiatives or coproduction projects include...
This study provides a detailed overview of Syria’s health system from 2000 to 2024 by synthesizing existing literature and data. Its goal is to inform the health sector recovery plan following recent political changes in Syria, detailing the health system’s characteristics and evolution on the basis of the WHO’s conceptual framework. A scoping review was conducted following...
Uterotonics are essential in reducing the risk of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) and saving mothers’ lives. However, numerous quality-testing studies have found that uterotonics in many low- and middle-income countries are substandard. This study compares the economic, health, and policy implications of poor-quality uterotonics in three West African countries: Ghana, Nigeria, and...
Co-creation has emerged as a crucial strategy for addressing complex public health challenges, including promotion and prevention of mental health concerns. While the evidence base for effective interventions continues to grow, significant gaps remain in their implementation and integration into real-world settings. Co-creation offers a valuable tool for strengthening mental...
Suicide remains a leading cause of death for young Australians. We need robust analytical tools to help us understand and respond to the dynamic complexity underlying suicide and suicidal behaviour. Participatory systems modelling leverages empirical data together with the experiential knowledge of stakeholders to inform model building, evaluation, and implementation. Efforts to...
We have formalized a protocol template suitable for all types of humanities and social sciences investigations in the domain of health, including empirical bioethics in particular. To achieve this, we revisited the protocol template proposed by O’Brien et al. in Academic Medicine in 2014, better known as the “Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR)”. We reorganized...
Digital innovations have the potential to enhance equitable access to health systems, improve care integration and support learning health systems. Research funders make substantial investments in digital health research to advance the uptake of evidence-informed digital solutions within health systems, yet their impacts on health and health system outcomes, health equity, policy...
Primary healthcare (PHC) is essential for health systems worldwide, and resource allocation is vital for sustainability. However, various challenges hinder the allocation process, negatively affecting health outcomes. Therefore, this study explored the current challenges related to financial resource allocation within the PHC system in Iran. This study is a qualitative...
Globally, health systems focus on improving the quality of healthcare services through policy changes. Sub-Saharan African countries have been enacting reforms to strengthen their primary healthcare and referral systems including devolution of authority to healthcare facilities. Devolving health facility financing to primary healthcare providers is a crucial strategy to enhance...
Malawi faces a high burden of chronic diseases. There is an increasing prevalence of multimorbidity, where individuals experience the coexistence of two or more chronic communicable and noncommunicable diseases. International organizations such as the WHO call for policy reforms that embrace integrated disease management. Our study explored the policy environment and decisions...
Public health challenges, ranging from noncommunicable disease prevention to pandemic preparedness, involve both policymaking and the handling of complexity at local, national or global level. The complexity of public health challenges arises from uncertain knowledge, hidden mechanisms, differing conceptual models and multiple stakeholders, making it difficult to identify and...
Hospital workplace violence (WPV) is a serious obstacle to the sustainable development of global health care, Therefore, it is necessary to adjust and optimize the current WPV prevention and control policies (WPVPCPs), and policy evaluation is the first prerequisite of this link. However, there is little literature on WPVPCPs. The aim of our study is to quantitatively evaluate...