International journal of health policy and management
-
Int J Health Policy Manag · Jan 2017
CommentA New Generation of Physicians in Sub-Saharan Africa? Comment on "Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians".
This commentary follows up on an editorial by Eyal and colleagues in which these authors discuss the implications of the emergence of non-physician clinicians (NPCs) on the health labour market for the education of medical doctors. We generally agree with those authors and we want to stress the importance of clarifying the terminology to describe these practitioners and of defining more formally their scope of practice as prerequisites to identifying the new competencies which physicians need to acquire. We add one new competencies domain, the utilization of new communication technologies, to those listed in the editorial. Finally, we identify policy issues which decision-makers will need to address to make medical education reform work.
-
Int J Health Policy Manag · Jan 2017
CommentThe Evolution of the Physician Role in the Setting of Increased Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Insistence on Timing and Culturally-Sensitive, Purposefully Selected Skill Development Comment on "Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians".
As Eyal et al put forth in their piece, Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians, task-shifting across sub-Saharan Africa through non-physician clinicians (NPCs) has led to an improvement in access to health services in the context of physician-shortages. Here, we offer a commentary to the piece by Eyal et al, concurring that physician's roles should evolve into specialized medicine and that skills in mentorship, research, management, and leadership may create more holistic physicians clinical services. ⋯ However, at the risk of a local, clinical brain drain as physicians shift to explore beyond the clinical sphere, we advocate strongly for increased caution to be exercised by leadership over the encouragement of this evolution. In the context of still-present physician shortages across many developing countries, we advocate to analyze this changing role and to purposefully select each new skill according to the context, giving careful consideration to the timing and degree of its evolution.
-
Int J Health Policy Manag · Jan 2017
An investigation Into Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospitals in China: Development Trend and Medical Service Innovation.
This paper aims to investigate the development trend of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) hospitals in China and explore their medical service innovations, with special reference to the changing co-existence with western medicine (WM) at TCM hospitals. ⋯ By drawing on WM while keeping it active in supporting and strengthening the TCM operation in the TCM hospital, the current system accommodates the overriding objective which is for TCM to evolve into a fully informed and more viable medical field.