All posts in low-income countries

COVID-19 PANDEMIC: FROM ISOLATION TO SOLIDARITY

By Richard Coker (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)

An epidemiological tsunami is sweeping the world. The most vulnerable will succumb directly from infection and, often forgotten, indirectly from being unable to access health care services. As this pandemic unfolds, it may be difficult to see any positive consequences…

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Do population beliefs change if we improve appropriate use of malaria medications?

By Elisa M. Maffioli, Indrani Saran, Manoj Mohanan, Wendy Prudhomme O’Meara

In malaria-endemic countries non-malaria febrile illnesses are frequent. Malaria diagnostic testing is becoming increasingly common. However, especially in rural settings, febrile individuals are often treated at retail drug stores, and among those less than 10% get…

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Health Policy and Planning’s Top 10 articles in 2019

By Natasha Salaria (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)

Health Policy and Planning publishes health policy and systems research focusing on low- and middle-income countries. The journal consists of four sections; Health Systems Research, Health Economics, Health Policy Processes and Implementation Research and Evaluation.

2019 was another…

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SUPPLEMENT LAUNCH: Access to Medicines through Health Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

By Ebiowei S.F Orubu (Niger Delta University) & Sachiko Ozawa (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

What does access to medicines in health systems mean, and why is this of concern?

This special issue in the journal Health Policy and Planning entitled “Access to Medicines through Health Systems…

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Does scaling up guarantee quality of care for HIV patients in northern Uganda?

By Joseph J. Valadez, Ulrike Seeberger (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine)

HIV/AIDS is one of the first global epidemics that killed complete generations of young adults. Its transition towards a chronic condition is one of the great achievements of medicine, pharmacy and public health. However, as a chronic disease…

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Mystery shoppers for healthcare providers: risky or rewarding in measuring quality of care?

By Jessica King (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)

The million-dollar question

How can we best measure quality of care? It’s the million-dollar question which those of us working in health systems and quality improvement would love to answer. So much of our time and effort…

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SUPPLEMENT LAUNCH! Advancing health systems for all in an SDG era

Health Systems Global and Health Policy and Planning are pleased to announce the publication of a special supplement – Advancing health systems for all in an SDG era. How did this supplement arise? The Fifth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR2018), hosted by Health Systems Global (HSG) and organized in…

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SUPPLEMENT LAUNCH: Transforming health systems financing in Lower Mekong: making sure the poor are not left behind

By Augustine Asante, Ir Por, Bart Jacobs and Virginia Wiseman

Universal health coverage (UHC) appears to be on everybody’s agenda these days, especially low- and middle- income countries (LIMCs). But achieving UHC goes beyond having it on one’s agenda; it requires, among other things, an equitable health financing…

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We did the sums on South Africa’s mental health spend. They’re not pretty

By Sumaiyah Docrat and Crick Lund (Alan J Fisher Centre for Public Mental Health, University of Cape Town)

This blog has been posted with kind permission from The Conversation.

South Africa has taken steps towards strengthening mental health care in the last 20 years. These include reforming the Mental Health…

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Gender quotas: Foe or friend for health leadership?

By Kui Muraya, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Nairobi, Kenya

My colleagues and I recently published a paper discussing the experiences and career trajectories of male and female health managers at sub-national level in Kenya. The published data was collected through in-depth interviews with sub-county level managers…

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