Sciencing up participation, and participationing science

That health, education and various other public services are distributed unfairly is not new for human societies; the level of unfairness however appears to be on the increase. This is indeed counter-intuitive, given the last few decades’ strides in economic progress and even improved average lifespan and improving access to health globally. Despite widespread feeling that inequalities in health or healthcare distribution is explained by chance or by other proximate explanations such as distance or wealth, the “causes of the causes” are invariably lying within social factors (see my recent TedX talk on health as a matter of chance, or of choice). Continue reading

Building health policy and systems research capacity in India: the KEYSTONE approach

The last few decades have seen a proliferation of research in the domain of health policy and systems research (HPSR). Major technological advances in medicine and various healthcare innovations have little chances of succeeding if robust country, provincial and local health systems are lacking. Continue reading

Changing mindsets: Strategy on health policy and systems research

Following review submitted to the Health Systems newsletter

On 1 November, 2012 at the Second Global Symposium on Health Systems

WHO-Alliance’s strategy document on health policy and systems research (Image: WHO)

Research at Beijing, the WHO Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research launched a strategy document, “Changing Mindsets: Strategy on Health Policy and Systems Research”. The document is an important contribution to the movement towards clarifying and strengthening the scope and reach of health systems research (also health policy and systems research). Continue reading