Health Equity: 07/08/10

Thursday, July 8, 2010

[EQ] Making the Case for Laws That Improve Health: A Framework for Public Health Law Research

Making the Case for Laws That Improve Health: A Framework for Public Health Law Research

Scott Burris, Alexander C. Wagenaar, Jeffrey Swanson, Jennifer K. Ibrahim, Jennifer Wood, and Michelle M. Mello
Temple University; University of Florida; Duke University; Harvard University
The Milbank Quarterly Volume 88, Number 2, 2010

Available online at: http://bit.ly/9SiquE

“……This article explores public health law research, defined as the scientific study of the relation of law and legal practices to population health.

The article offers a logic model of public health law research and a typology of approaches to studying the effects of law on public health. Research on the content and prevalence of public health laws, processes of adopting and implementing laws, and the extent to which and mechanisms through which law affects health outcomes can use methods drawn from epidemiology, economics, sociology, and other disciplines. T

he maturation of public health law research as a field depends on methodological rigor, adequate research funding, access to appropriate data sources, and policymakers’ use of research findings.

Public health law research is a young field but holds great promise for supporting evidence-based policymaking that will improve population health. ….”

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[EQ] Gaining Health: Analysis of policy development in European countries for tackling non communicable diseases

Gaining Health

Analysis of policy development in European countries for tackling non communicable diseases

By Anna Ritsatakis and Péter Makara

Editors: Jill L. Farrington, Robert Geneau and Bosse Pettersson

Regional Office for Europe of the World Health Organization 2009

Available online as PDF file [274p.] at: http://bit.ly/al0Ojk

“…..The greatest disease burden in Europe comes from noncommunicable diseases (NCD). In 2005 (1), an estimated 86% of deaths and 77% of the disease burden1 were caused by NCD, a broad group of conditions linked by common risk factors, underlying determinants and opportunities for intervention….”

The structure of the book is as follows.

Chapter 1. Introduction - This chapter gives the rationale for the study and an overview of the book.

Chapter 2. History and context of policies to tackle NCD non communicable diseases

This chapter describes the key features of NCD non communicable diseases policy development in the last two decades, the broader context and related policy initiatives.

Chapter 3. Methodology, underlying concepts and values

This chapter sets out why and how the original study was carried out, with an explanation of underlying concepts and values.

Chapter 4. Country case studies

The case studies describe NCD non communicable diseases policy development in Albania, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Kyrgyzstan and Lithuania. These eight countries were selected to provide reasonable geographical coverage and to include countries at different levels of economic development and with a range of political, administrative and health care systems and length of NCD policy experience.

Chapter 5. Reflections on experiences

Drawing on cross-analysis of the case studies and other sources, this chapter reflects on country experience throughout the policy cycle, presents the lessons learnt, and illustrates how different stakeholders and NCD issues influence the development of policies.

Chapter 6. Pointers for the future

Leading on from the conclusions of the analysis, this chapter offers countries valuable pointers on moving forward within the framework of the European NCD Strategy and also alerts them to emerging challenges and opportunities for NCD policy development in the future.

http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/105318/e92828.pdf

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[EQ] Do we need an international collaboration for synthesizing health-system evidence?

Do we need an international collaboration for synthesizing health-system evidence?

Working Group on Health Systems Research Synthesis

Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research

20 May 2010

Available online PDF [12p.] at: http://bit.ly/b938WY

“…..Health system policy-makers and managers routinely face difficult decisions around improving health and promoting equity. They must consider complex questions about effective strategies for organizing the overall health system and about designing and implementing or changing and improving specific policy and programme options. For instance, does contracting out services to the private sector improve access to health care?

How could the health system best retain trained health care providers in underserved areas?

Do conditional cash transfers improve the uptake of health interventions?

These questions have a high relevance to many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). But how can scientific evidence – often difficult to find, unclear in its implications, and seemingly shifting from one year to the next – inform the answers to these questions? Similar challenges in clinical medicine have been addressed by the Cochrane Collaboration – an organization dedicated to helping healthcare providers, policy-makers, patients, their advocates and careers, make well-informed decisions about human health care by preparing, updating and promoting the accessibility of Cochrane Reviews which are both produced by, and are relevant to, everyone interested in the effects of health care.

The field of health systems research (HSR) may also benefit from a similar international collaboration for synthesizing health systems evidence. The collaboration could support the synthesizing and translating of health systems knowledge, as well as support the identifying of research gaps and the setting of research agendas for both primary and secondary research.

This consultation document explores this issue, based largely (although not exclusively) on presentations and subsequent discussion at a session on this topic held at the Global Forum for Health Research 2009 (1)…………”

Table of contents

1. Background

2. What benefits and challenges might be associated with a collaboration in synthesizing and translating health systems evidence?

2.1. Synthesizing

2.2. Translating

3. What kinds of knowledge syntheses could usefully inform decisions about strengthening health systems and what methods are appropriate for conducting such syntheses? .

4. To what extent do established collaborations already support synthesis and translation for health systems research and, what might an additional collaboration offer?

5. Questions for consideration

6. Next steps and contact details

References

Appendix

http://www.who.int/alliance-hpsr/alliancehpsr_consultationdoc_healthsystemsresearchsynthesis.pdf

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