Research News

Health Research Capacities in Palestine: High-quality and Proper Knowledge Transfer and Translation for Sound Decision-making

ABSTRACT

Background: Over the last two decades, the World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed a global strategy and initiatives to build robust capacity for a Health Research System (HRS) focusing on Health Research Quality and Standardization (HRQS), Health Research Knowledge Transfer and Dissemination (HRKTD), and Health Research Translation and Utilization into Health Care Decisions and Policies (HRTUDP). Despite the expansion of health research productivity for several decades, HRS Capacity (HRSC) in Palestine and in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region generally has rarely been objectively evaluated. This study aims at eliciting the perceptions of HRS performers in Palestine in order to understand the status of the capacities of HRS, identify gaps, and to generate policies and solutions capable of strengthening HRSC in Palestine.

Methods: Purposive methods were used in this qualitative study to identify key informants from three sectors; government, academia, and local and international organizations. Fifty-two in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants and a total of fifty-two individuals participated in six focus groups. Data were analyzed by using MAXQDA 12.

UP-NIH 22nd Anniversary: HEALTH AMIDST CLIMATE CHANGE, DISASTERS AND OUTBREAKS

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) was established as the National Health Research Center in our country through the enactment of the Republic Act 8503 (Health Research and Development Act of 1998) on February 13, 1998. This 2020, the NIH will be celebrating its 22nd Anniversary by holding a 2-day conference and workshop with the theme: “Health Amidst Climate Change, Disasters, and Outbreaks” on March 2-3 2020 at the Bayanihan Center, UNILAB, Kapitolyo, Pasig City. During the conference, discussions will focus on health impacts such as increased heat-related morbidity and mortality; higher risks of exposures to vector-borne diseases and pathogens; reduced food availability and quality for daily nutritional needs; increased risks of physical and mental health issues associated with demoralized and displaced populations resulting from climate-induced dislocation, environmental decline and conflict situations; greater frequency of infectious disease epidemics and physical injuries following storm-induced floods, landslides and droughts; and other climate change related consequences to health. A discourse on urban planning and health infrastructures to respond to the current climate scenarios will also be presented.

WHO Guideline: Recommendations on Digital Interventions for Health System Strengthening

Copyright: World Health Organization
Source: International Hospital Federation Newsletter

The key aim of this guideline is to present recommendations based on a critical evaluation of the evidence on emerging digital health interventions that are contributing to health system improvements, based on an assessment of the benefits, harms, acceptability, feasibility, resource use and equity considerations.

This guideline urges readers to recognize that digital health interventions are not a substitute for functioning health systems, and that there are significant limitations to what digital health is able to address.

Report on the WHO WESTPAC Regional Conference

IHF Journal Volume 55 Number 3

The third 2019 issue of the World Hospitals and Health Services (WHHS) has been published on the IHF website.

Source: International Hospital Federation Journal

Philippines to spend $17b on health

Source: Health Care Asia Magazine: Philippines sighted to spend $17.16b on healthcare

The approval of the universal healthcare bill is speeding up expenses in the country.

Ever since the Philippine senate approved the Universal Healthcare Bill (UHC) on October 2018, the healthcare spending in the Philippines has experienced a sharp acceleration with a higher spending per capita as well as on a sectoral level, according to Fitch Solutions.

The bill, which aims to provide more affordable healthcare to Filipinos, has given way for a generous allotment of the state budget to the country’s healthcare sector.

Fitch reckons the healthcare spending to rise by 11.48% YoY in 2019 to $17.16b (PHP894.42b), up from $16.64b (PHP802.18b) in 2018. In line with this, spending growth is expected to continually accelerate by an average annual growth rate of 11.7% over the next four years to reach PHP1,395.356b ($26.715b) in 2023.

In per capita terms, this translates into an increase from $156 in 2018 to $158.8 in 2019 through to $234.4 by the close of 2023.

More specifically, the country’s spending growth will be fuelled by government support, with state spending forecast to account for a 42.01% share of total health spending in the country in 2019, up from a 40.55% share a year earlier.

This has also improved investment sentiment into the country’s health sector, wherein a recent partnership involving US buyout firm KKR and Singapore state investment vehicle GIC is set to invest US$685m on one of the Philippines’ largest hospital operators, Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Incorporated (MPHHI), acquiring a 6.25% holding for US$100m.