Health research policy and systems / BioMed Central
-
Health Res Policy Syst · Nov 2015
Comparative StudyAn analysis of discrepancies between United Kingdom cancer research funding and societal burden and a comparison to previous and United States values.
Ideally, the allocation of research funding for each specific type of cancer should be proportional to its societal burden. This burden can be estimated with the metric 'years of life lost' (YLL), which combines overall mortality and age at death. ⋯ There are discrepancies between cancer research funding allocation and societal burden in the United Kingdom. These discrepancies are broadly similar in both the United Kingdom and the United States and, while they appear to be improving, this is not consistent across all types of cancer.
-
Health Res Policy Syst · Oct 2015
SDH-NET: a South-North-South collaboration to build sustainable research capacities on social determinants of health in low- and middle-income countries.
It is desirable that health researchers have the ability to conduct research on health equity and contribute to the development of their national health system and policymaking processes. However, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), there is a limited capacity to conduct this type of research due to reasons mostly associated with the status of national (health) research systems. Building sustainable research capacity in LMICs through the triangulation of South-North-South (S-N-S) collaborative networks seems to be an effective way to maximize limited national resources to strengthen these capacities. This article describes how a collaborative project (SDH-Net), funded by the European Commission, has successfully designed a study protocol and a S-N-S collaborative network to effectively support research capacity building in LMICs, specifically in the area of social determinants of health (SDH); this project seeks to elaborate on the vital role of global collaborative networks in strengthening this practice. ⋯ The effective triangulation of S-N-S partnerships can be of high value in building sustainable research capacity in LMICs. If designed appropriately, these multicultural, multi-institutional, and multidisciplinary collaborations can enable southern and northern academics to contextualize global research according to their national realities.
-
Health Res Policy Syst · Jun 2015
Comparative StudyIndustry-sponsored clinical research outside high-income countries: an empirical analysis of registered clinical trials from 2006 to 2013.
Industry-sponsored clinical trials, in the past performed almost exclusively in more developed countries, now often recruit participants globally. However, recruitment from outside high-income countries may not represent the ultimate target population for the intervention. Clinical trial registries provide an opportunity to quantify and examine the type of clinical research performed in various geographic regions. We sought to characterize industry-sponsored randomized controlled trials conducted in high-income countries and to compare these trials to those performed outside high-income countries. ⋯ More than a quarter of industry-sponsored trials include participants from outside high-income countries and this rate remained stable over the 7-year study period. Trials conducted outside high-income countries tend to be larger, have a longer duration, and study later phase interventions compared to studies performed exclusively in high-income countries.
-
Health Res Policy Syst · May 2015
The role of policy actors and contextual factors in policy agenda setting and formulation: maternal fee exemption policies in Ghana over four and a half decades.
Development of health policy is a complex process that does not necessarily follow a particular format and a predictable trajectory. Therefore, agenda setting and selecting of alternatives are critical processes of policy development and can give insights into how and why policies are made. Understanding why some policy issues remain and are maintained whiles others drop off the agenda is an important enquiry. This paper aims to advance understanding of health policy agenda setting and formulation in Ghana, a lower middle-income country, by exploring how and why the maternal (antenatal, delivery and postnatal) fee exemption policy agenda in the health sector has been maintained over the four and half decades since a 'free antenatal care in government facilities' policy was first introduced in October 1963. ⋯ Influencers of policy agenda setting must recognise that the process is complex and intertwined with a mix of political, evidence-based, finance-based, path-dependent, and donor-driven processes. Therefore, influencers need to pay attention to context and policy actors in any strategy.
-
Health Res Policy Syst · Jan 2015
Informing the establishment of the WHO Global Observatory on Health Research and Development: a call for papers.
In May 2013, the WHO Member States requested the WHO to establish a Global Observatory on Health Research and Development (R&D), as part of a strategic work-plan to promote innovation, build capacity, improve access, and mobilize resources to address diseases that disproportionately affect the world's poorest countries. The rationale for establishing a Global Observatory on Health R&D is to provide a mechanism to monitor and analyse health R&D resource flows, product pipelines, and research outputs, aiming to contribute to the identification of gaps to inform priority-setting for new R&D investments to be operationalized through a new global financing and coordination mechanism for health R&D and utilized by all stakeholders informing health research policy decisions in countries, civil society, and the private sector. As one of the mechanisms to achieve the goals of the Global Observatory on Health R&D, the WHO is launching a Call for Papers to be published as a Thematic Series in Health Research Policy and Systems to contribute state-of-the-art knowledge and innovative approaches to analyse, interpret, and report on health R&D information. Further, to serve as a key resource to inform the future WHO-convened coordination mechanism, which will be utilized to generate evidence-informed priorities for new R&D investments to be financed through a proposed new global financing and coordination mechanism for health R&D.