Health Equity: 03/25/10

Thursday, March 25, 2010

[EQ] Framework for action on interprofessional education and collaborative practice

Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice

Health Professions Networks - Nursing & Midwifery - Human Resources for Health

World Health Organization, 2010

Available online: http://www.who.int/hrh/resources/framework_action/en/index.html

PDF [62p.]at: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2010/WHO_HRH_HPN_10.3_eng.pdf

"…At a time when the world is facing a shortage of health workers, policymakers are looking for innovative strategies that can help them develop policy and programmes to bolster the global health workforce.

The Framework highlights the current status of interprofessional collaboration around the world, identifies the mechanisms that shape successful collaborative teamwork and outlines a series of action items that policymakers can apply within their local health system.

The goal of the Framework is to provide strategies and ideas that will help health policymakers implement the elements of interprofessional education and collaborative practice that will be most beneficial in their own jurisdiction….”

Contents

Key messages

Executive summary

The case for interprofessional education and collaborative practice for global health

Moving forward with integrated health and education policies

A call to action

Learning together to work together for better health

The need for interprofessional collaboration

Interprofessional education and collaborative practice for improved health outcomes

The role of health and education systems

A culture shift in health-care delivery

Moving forward

Interprofessional education: achieving a collaborative practice-ready health workforce

Collaborative practice: achieving optimal health-services

Health and education systems: achieving improved health outcomes

Conclusion

Contextualize

Commit

Champion

References

* * *
This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues. [DD/ KMC Area]

“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
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[EQ] Facilitating access to pre-processed research evidence in public health

Facilitating access to pre-processed research evidence in public health

Paula Robeson*, Maureen Dobbins, Kara DeCorby†, Daiva Tirilis†

Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University
BMC Public Health 2010, 10:95

Available at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2458-10-95.pdf

'…….Evidence-informed decision making is accepted in Canada and worldwide as necessary for the provision of effective health services.
This process involves:
1) clearly articulating a practice-based issue;
2) searching for and accessing relevant evidence;
3) appraising methodological rigor and choosing the most synthesized evidence of the highest quality and relevance to the practice issue and setting that is available
4) extracting, interpreting, and translating knowledge, in light of the local context and resources, into practice, program and policy decisions.

While the public health sector in Canada is working toward evidence-informed decision making, considerable barriers, including efficient access to synthesized resources, exist.

Methods: In this paper we map to a previously developed 6 level pyramid of pre-processed research evidence, relevant resources that include public health-related effectiveness evidence. The resources were identified through extensive searches of both the published and unpublished domains.

Results: Many resources with public health-related evidence were identified. While there were very few resources dedicated solely to public health evidence, many clinically focused resources include public health-related evidence, making tools such as the pyramid, that identify these resources, particularly helpful for public health decisions makers. A practical example illustrates the application of this model and highlights its potential to reduce the time and effort that would be required by public health decision makers to address their practice-based issues.

Conclusions: This paper describes an existing hierarchy of pre-processed evidence and its adaptation to the public health setting. A number of resources with public health-relevant content that are either freely accessible or requiring a subscription are identified. This will facilitate easier and faster access to pre-processed, public health relevant evidence, with the intent of promoting evidence-informed decision making.

Access to such resources addresses several barriers identified by public health decision makers to evidence-informed decision making, most importantly time, as well as lack of knowledge of resources that house public health-relevant evidence…."

"Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members".
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Equity List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html
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    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.

[EQ] Implicit Value Judgments in the Measurement of Health Inequalities

Implicit Value Judgments in the Measurement of Health Inequalities

Sam Harper, Nicholas B. King, Stephen C. Meersman, Marsha E. Reichman, Nancy Breen, and John Lynch
McGill University; Case Western Reserve University; National Cancer Institute; University of South Australia; University of Bristol
The Milbank Quarterly, Vol. 88, No. 1, 2010 (pp. 4–29)

Available online at: http://www.milbank.org/quarterly/8801feat.html

PDF [26p.] at: http://www.milbank.org/quarterly/8801feat.pdf

Context: Quantitative estimates of the magnitude, direction, and rate of change of health inequalities play a crucial role in creating and assessing policies aimed at eliminating the disproportionate burden of disease in disadvantaged populations. It is generally assumed that the measurement of health inequalities is a value-neutral process, providing objective data that are then interpreted using normative judgments about whether a particular distribution of health is just, fair, or socially acceptable.

Methods: We discuss five examples in which normative judgments play a role in the measurement process itself, through either the selection of one measurement strategy to the exclusion of others or the selection of the type, significance, or weight assigned to the variables being measured.

Findings: Overall, we find that many commonly used measures of inequality are value laden and that the normative judgments implicit in these measures have important consequences for interpreting and responding to health inequalities.

Conclusions: Because values implicit in the generation of health inequality measures may lead to radically different interpretations of the same underlying data, we urge researchers to explicitly consider and transparently discuss the normative judgments underlying their measures. We also urge policymakers and other consumers of health inequalities data to pay close attention to the measures on which they base their assessments of current and future health policies.

    IMPORTANT: This transmission is for use by the intended recipient and it may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering this transmission to the intended recipient, you may not disclose, copy or distribute this transmission or take any action in reliance on it. If you received this transmission in error, please notify us immediately by email to infosec@paho.org, and please dispose of and delete this transmission. Thank you.