Achieving Effective Universal Health Coverage And Diagonal Approaches To Care For Chronic Illnesses

Health systems in low- and middle-income countries were designed to provide episodic care for acute conditions. However, the burden of disease has shifted to be overwhelmingly dominated by chronic conditions and illnesses that require health systems to function in an integrated manner across a spectrum of disease stages from prevention to palliation. Low- and middle-income countries are also aiming to ensure health care access for all through universal health coverage. This article proposes a framework of effective universal health coverage intended to meet the challenge of chronic illnesses. It outlines strategies to strengthen health systems through a “diagonal approach.” We argue that the core challenge to health systems is chronicity of illness that requires ongoing and long-term health care. The example of breast cancer within the broader context of health system reform in Mexico is presented to illustrate effective universal health coverage along the chronic disease continuum and across health ...

9th European Public Health Conference

The 9th European Public Health Conference will be held in Vienna with the theme of ‘All for Health, Health for All’. A healthy population is a key requirement for the achievement of society’s goals. Good health for all enhances quality of life, improves workforce productivity, increases the capacity for learning, strengthens families and communities, supports sustainable habitats and environments, and contributes to security, poverty reduction and social inclusion. Increasingly, communities, employers and industries are expecting and demanding strong coordinated government action to promote health in all sectors of society and avoid duplication and fragmentation of actions.

Abstracts can be submitted from 1 February until 1 May 2016 (23:59 Central European Time).

Registration for the 9th EPH Conference opens 1 March 2016.

For more information, click here:9th EPH Conference.

Ten actions required to improve health, social care and well-being in Wales

Health and social care organizations from Wales joined in the Welsh NHS Confederation’s 2016 Challenge Policy Forum and the published  a document called “Ten actions required to improve health, social care and well-being in Wales", trying to establish their priorities in order to get a better system.

The ten priorities described are: long term vision, ensuring financing, planning workforce, person centred and integrated care, public health perspective, improve preventive measurements, creating a culture of honest and open communication with population, improving mental health support, ensuring equal access to health and social care and improving the use of technology.

Understanding integrated care: a complex process, a fundamental principle

Recent Editorial in the International Journal on Integrated Care, written by Nick Goodwin, emphasising the importance of the Framework. Around the past year Nick Goodwin has been involved in a range of research and development activities that seek to understand and/or promote the successful adoption of integrated care. In each of these, a common opening statement from protagonists is to typically say that “there is no universally accepted definition of integrated care, no one model of care that can be replicated locally, and little evidence to tell us that it works”. Whilst the latter might be disputed it remains true that people struggle with what integrated care means and particularly how it can be applied.

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The Practical Playbook: Helping Public Health and Primary Care Work Together to Improve Population Health

The Practical Playbook is a stepping stone in the next transformation of health, in which primary care and public health groups collaborate to achieve population health improvement and reduced health care costs. It supports increased collaborations between primary care and public health groups by guiding users through the stages of building partnerships. Throughout each stage, the Practical Playbook provides helpful resources such as success stories from across the country, lessons-learned from existing partnerships, and further guidance from industry experts.

We use the playbook metaphor because improving collaboration between public health and primary care takes a thoughtful game plan. Like a sports playbook, the Practical Playbook defines the role of each team member as well as actions for different situations. As a playbook, it’s neither a rulebook nor a set of peer-reviewed guidelines. It’s something more practical - because we need real-life, flexible guidance to help us apply the theoretical ...

The Practical Playbook: Helping Public Health and Primary Care Work Together to Improve Population Health

The Practical Playbook is a stepping stone in the next transformation of health, in which primary care and public health groups collaborate to achieve population health improvement and reduced health care costs. It supports increased collaborations between primary care and public health groups by guiding users through the stages of building partnerships. Throughout each stage, the Practical Playbook provides helpful resources such as success stories from across the country, lessons-learned from existing partnerships, and further guidance from industry experts.

We use the playbook metaphor because improving collaboration between public health and primary care takes a thoughtful game plan. Like a sports playbook, the Practical Playbook defines the role of each team member as well as actions for different situations. As a playbook, it’s neither a rulebook nor a set of peer-reviewed guidelines. It’s something more practical - because we need real-life, flexible guidance to help us apply the theoretical ...

Break the Cycle of Violence: A Miami-Area Community Drives Change

Bringing Public Health and Primary Care Together: The Practical Playbook National Meeting was held in May 2016. The meeting was a milestone event towards advancing robust collaborations that improve population health.

One highlight of the meeting was interviewing community collaborations funded by The BUILD Health Challenge. The BUILD Health Challenge is a national awards program designed to support community collaborations that are working to give everyone a fair chance to be healthy.

Overview

The Liberty City Community Collaborative for Change targets a Miami-area community that is characterized by poverty, lack of food access, low educational attainment levels, and violence, including disproportionately high rates of physical, sexual, and child abuse. These attributes lead to trauma, chronic stress, and mental and physical health outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, sleeping disorders, high blood pressure, and strokes. 

About the Practical Playbook National Meeting

Key stakeholders from across sectors – representing professional associations, community ...

Break the Cycle of Violence: A Miami-Area Community Drives Change

Bringing Public Health and Primary Care Together: The Practical Playbook National Meeting was held in May 2016. The meeting was a milestone event towards advancing robust collaborations that improve population health.

One highlight of the meeting was interviewing community collaborations funded by The BUILD Health Challenge. The BUILD Health Challenge is a national awards program designed to support community collaborations that are working to give everyone a fair chance to be healthy.

Overview

The Liberty City Community Collaborative for Change targets a Miami-area community that is characterized by poverty, lack of food access, low educational attainment levels, and violence, including disproportionately high rates of physical, sexual, and child abuse. These attributes lead to trauma, chronic stress, and mental and physical health outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, substance abuse, sleeping disorders, high blood pressure, and strokes. 

About the Practical Playbook National Meeting

Key stakeholders from across sectors – representing professional associations, community ...

Integrated care in practice- the South Eastern Sydney Experience

The purpose of this paper is to describe the recent efforts of a large publicly funded healthcare organisation in sidney, Australia to implement the IC "at scale and pace" in the messy, real world context of a District Health Service. The paper outlines the theoretical and practical considerations used to design and develop a localised IC Strategy informed by the “House of Care” model (NHS England, 2016). The need for cross-agency partnership, a shared narrative, joint leadership and an IC Strategy underpinned by proven theoretical models model is described. This paper highlights key factors relating to implementation and evaluation of a local Integrated Care (IC) Strategy in the real world. 

Health assessments for health governance—concepts and methodologies

For better supporting science-governance interface, the potential of health assessments appear underrated. The aims of this article is to identify what various types of health assessment have in common; how they differ, which assessments to apply for which purpose; and what needs and options there are for future joint development. 

How health care is funded

The NHS is experiencing the longest and most severe slowdown in funding in its history. This has raised questions about the sustainability of its funding model.

The way that health care is funded varies between different countries. This report explain the main models used to finance health care: taxation, private health insurance and social health insurance. Also, the report show how each model works in its purest form, while recognising that most countries typically pay for health care using a combination of methods

Integrated care in practice – the South Eastern Sydney experience

The purpose of this paper is to describe the recent efforts of a large publicly funded health care organisation in Sydney, Australia to implement integrated care (IC) "at scale and pace" in the messy, real-world context of a District Health Service. This paper highlights key factors relating to implementation and evaluation of a local IC Strategy in the real world. 

Health assessments for health governance—concepts and methodologies

For better supporting the science-governance interface, the potencial of health assessments appears underrated. The aims of this study are to identify what various types of health assessment have in common, how they differ; which assessments to apply for which purpose; and what needs and options there are for future joint development. 

Challenges and achievements in integrated care: different health and social care providers working together. Successful projects that show that this is the way

The Catalan health system is a public healthcare system, funded by taxes, with universal coverage and public healthcare services portfolio. There´s a mixed healthcare providers network. Delivery of integrated health and social care witha a shift to a patient-centered model is one of the main challenges of our public system. this artcile share three experiences of different models developed to improve integration of social and healthcare services, to guarantee the continuum of care and to achieve quality health and social care outcomes. 

Imperial child health general practice hubs

For most children, the GP is their main point of contact with the health servivce. While children make up nearlyy one-fifth of the population in England, they are estimated to account for two-fifths of a typical GP´s workload. Despite this, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health estimate that in many parts of the country, between 40 and 50 per cent of GPs have a had little or no formal paediatric training. Evidence suggest that many of these case could be managed outside an acute setting. 

The dark side of social capital: A systematic review of the negative health effects of social capital

There is a growing literature demonstrating the health benefits of social capital (defined as the resources accessed thorugh social connections). However, social capital is also acknowledged to be a "double-edged" phenomenon, whose effects on health are not always positive. This article did a systematical review that have found a negative association between social capital and health outcomes. Their objective was to classify the different types of negatives effects, following a framework originally proposed by Portes (1998)

Does Scale of Public Hospitals Affect Bargaining Power? Evidence From Japan

Many of public hospitals in Japan have had a deficit for a long time. Japanese local governments have been encouraging public hospitals to use group purchasing of drugs to benefit from the economies of scale, and increase their bargaining power for obtaining discounts in drug purchasing, thus improving their financial situation. In this study, they empirically investigate whether or not the scale of public hospitals actually affects their bargaining power. 

Operationalizing mHealth to improve patient care: a qualitative implementation science evaluation of the WelTel texting intervention in Canada and Kenya

Mobile health (mHealth) applications have proliferated across the  globe with much enthusiasm, although few have reached scale and shown public health impact. In this study, they explored how different contextual factors influenced the implementation, effectiveness and potential for scale-up of welTel, an easy-to-use and evidence-based mHealth intervention. WelTel uses two-way SMS communication to improve patient adherence to medication and engagement in care, and has been developed and tested in Canada and Kenya. 

Public–private partnerships in practice: collaborating to improve health finance policy in Ghana and Kenya

Social health insurance (SHI), one mechanism for achieving universal health coverage, has become increasingly important in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as they work to achieve this goal. Although small private providers supply a significant proportion of healthcare in LMICs, integrating these providers into SHI systems is often challenging. Public–private partnerships in health are one way to address these challenges, but we know little about how these collaborations work, how effectively, and why. 

Strengthening the public health workforce: An estimation of the long-term requirements for public health specialists in Serbia

At the beginning of the 21st century, planning the public health workforce requirements came into the focus of policy makers. The need for improved provision of essential public health services, driven by a challenging non-communicable disease and causes of death and disability within Serbia, calls for a much needed estimation of the requirements of the public health professionals. Mid and long-term public health specialists’ supply and demand estimations out to 2025were developed based on national staffing standards and regional distribution of the workforce in public health institutes of Serbia

Building capacity in primary care rehabilitation clinical practice guidelines: a South African initiative

The large number of South Africans with disability who cannot access good quality rehabilitation presents a public health and human rights challenge. A cost-effective, efficient approach is required to address this. Implementation of high-quality, contextually relevant clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) could be a solution; however, this requires significant investment in innovative capacity-building.

Twenty years observation of health systems and policies: what has the European observatory meant for public health?

Twenty years ago, as Europe was preparing itself for the new millennium with a mixture of enthusiasm and trepidation, the WHO Regional Director for Europe established a clearing house for health care reforms that would ultimately give birth to ‘The European Observatory on Health Care Systems’. Health systems in central and Eastern Europe were changing rapidly, with consequences for the health of the populations concerned. In Western Europe, some were exploring ways to exercise their rights to cross-border health care within the European Union and exploring new possibilities to protect health under the powers bestowed by the Maastricht Treaty. To read more...

Community Health Worker Programs to Improve Healthcare Access and Equity: Are They Only Relevant to Low- and Middle-Income Countries?

Community Health Workers (CHWs) are proven to be highly effective in low- and middle-income countries with many examples of successful large-scale programs. There is growing interest in deploying CHW programs in high-income countries to address inequity in healthcare access and outcomes amongst population groups facing disadvantage. This study is the first that examines the scope and potential value of CHW programs in Australia and the challenges involved in integrating CHWs into the health system. The potential for CHWs to improve health equity is explored.

Health literacy as a social practice: Social and empirical dimensions of knowledge on health and healthcare

Health literacy has become a hot topic in health research and public health promotion. Most definitions specify health literacy as an individual cognitive skill, and surveys such as the EU-HLS which ask people to self-rate their decision-making capacity in the health system, grade a majority of the population as having an inadequate health literacy. Inspired by a praxeological understanding of knowledge and based on an empirical study on welfare bricolage in superdiverse urban neighborhoods, this paper explores health literacy ethnographically and highlights people's knowledge, creative practices and experiences concerning health and healthcare.

Public health law coverage in support of the health-related sustainable development goals (SDGs) among 33 Western Pacific countries

A resilient health system is inevitable in attaining the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One way of strengthening health systems is improving the coverage of public health laws for better health governance. The aim of this study is to describe the public health law situation in the Western Pacific Region and analyse the association of public health law coverage with health-related SDGs statistics.

The development and reform of public health in China from 1949 to 2019

Public health system plays a vital role in the development of health sector in China and protects the health of Chinese people. However, there are few comprehensive reviews and studies focusing on its evolution and reform. It is worthwhile to pay attention to the public health development in China, given that the history and structure of public health system have their own characteristics in China.

The study is a retrospective review of the development public health over seven decades in China. It presents the findings from some national or provincial survey data, interviews with key informants, reviews of relevant published papers and policy contents

Political struggles for a universal health system in Brazil: successes and limits in the reduction of inequalities

Brazil is a populous high/middle-income country, characterized by deep economic and social inequalities. Like most other Latin American nations, Brazil constructed a health system that included, on the one hand, public health programs and, on the other, social insurance healthcare for those working in the formal sector. This study analyzes the political struggles surrounding the implementation of a universal health system from the mid-1980s to the present, and their effects on selected health indicators, focusing on the relevant international and national contexts, political agendas, government orientations and actors.

Care providers, access to care, and the Long-term Care Nursing Insurance in China: An agent-based simulation

China piloted a publicly funded Long-term Care Nursing Insurance (LTCNI) with an aim to improve access to long-term care (LTC) for older people in China in 2012. Existing studies showed that the scheme has been successful in meeting some goals, but little is known on how the availability, price and quality of the local care providers affect access to care. This article founded considerable discrepancies in terms of access to services among the LTCNI beneficiaries. The poor are more likely to choose nursing home care with low costs albeit these services may be of poor quality. The demand for home-based services is high, but these services are not distributed according to population needs and are not available in some districts with high concentration of older people. 

Primary Health Care That Works: The Costa Rican Experience

Long considered a paragon among low- and middle-income countries in its provision of primary health care, Costa Rica reformed its primary health care system in 1994 using a model that, despite its success, has been generally understudied: basic integrated health care teams. This case study provides a detailed description of Costa Rica’s innovative implementation of four critical service delivery reforms and explains how those reforms supported the provision of the four essential functions of primary health care: first-contact access, coordination, continuity, and comprehensiveness. As countries around the world pursue high-quality universal health coverage to attain the Sustainable Development Goals, Costa Rica’s experiences provide valuable lessons about both the types of primary health care reforms needed and potential mechanisms through which these reforms can be successfully implemented.

16th World Congress on Public Health 2020, Public health for the future of humanity: analysis, advocacy and action

The global public health community will be meeting at a critical time for our planet. Global temperatures lie far beyond historical records and there are real fears that we are reaching a tipping point. Threats to food and water supply, poverty and inequalities are leading to mass migration and conflict.

The theme of the World Congress, Public Health for the Future of Humanity: Analysis, Advocacy, and Action, reflects the commitment that the global public health community must make visible the threats to health, and must challenge and hold to account those with the power to make a difference.

Read more about the plenary programme of the World Congress on Public Health here.

International cooperation in public health in Martinique: geostrategic utility for cancer surveillance in the Caribbean

Cooperation in public health and in oncology in particular, is currently a major issue for the island of Martinique, given its geopolitical position in the Caribbean region. The region of Martinique shares certain public health problems with other countries of the Caribbean, notably in terms of diagnostic and therapeutic management of patients with cancer. This study presents a roadmap of cooperation priorities and activities in cancer surveillance and oncology in Martinique.

Building integrated care as the cornerstone of our new reality

This webinar allowed decision makers and managers in health and health care to learn about the integrated care approaches that have been implemented and the considerations that have been made to address the continuum of care and support needs of individuals, beyond public health issues and crisis management.

Digital Solutions: Adoption, Adaptation and their role in post-Covid19 health and social care delivery

ICOPH: 6th International Conference on Public Health 2020

ICOPH 2020 is a premier event that brings together 250+ academicians, public health specialists, health professionals, healthcare providers, researchers, scientists, policymakers, pharmaceutical developers, and health workers from countries around the world to present their latest research ideas, development, and applications in all areas of Public Health.

The key intention of ICOPH 2020 is to facilitate interaction and the exchange of knowledge and ideas across professional constituencies pertaining to all areas of public health. In addition, this gathering will help the delegates to establish research as well as to find international linkage for future collaborations in their career path.

• Primary Health Care

• Metabolic Syndrome

• Maternal, Infant and Child health

• Family Planning

• Occupational and Safety Health

• Environmental Health

• Epidemiology

• Mental Health

• Adolescent & Young Adults Health

• Social Determinants of Health

• Non Communicable Diseases

• Health Economics

• Sexual and Reproductive Health

• Health Communication and Health Information Technology

• Oral Health

Policy framework for building integrated care for TB patients in Romania: setting up the scene

Person-centred care in TB

The WHO End TB Strategy includes integrated patient-centred care and prevention within one of its three pillars and has global targets aimed at ending the TB epidemic by the year 2030. Here, we describe the tensions and challenges that may undermine the approach and explore opportunities to align person-centred care with other health system goals. 

Users’ and Providers’ Perceptions about Integrated Health Care in Southern Denmark

Health care systems are increasingly complex, and evidence shows poor coordination of care within and between providers, as well as at the interface between different levels of care. The purpose of this study is to explore users’ and providers’ (stakeholders’) perspectives of integrated care in Denmark. We conducted qualitative interviews with 19 providers and 18 users that were analysed through inductive content analysis. Providers’ and stakeholders’ perceived deficits in system-level factors, lack of organizational culture, weaknesses in communication, a need for a shift towards considering equity in access to health services and focus on person-centeredness. Fundamental changes suggested by participants were better sharing of information and knowledge, focus on stronger trust building, efforts in making communication more effective, and changes in incentive structure. Users perceived poor navigation in the health care system, frustration when they experienced that the services were not based on their needs and lack of support for ...

The 6th Global Public Health Conference (GLOBEHEAL 2023)

Models, theoretical design and formal evaluation of integrated specialist community health service provision for the first 2000 days: a scoping review

This scoping review identifies evidence for design, models and evaluation of integrated care service provision for families and children in the first 2000 days, in the context of community-based specialised health, education and welfare services.

Integrated person- and people-centred primary care for diabetes in low- and middle-income countries: The nurses' perspective on patient needs

The aim of this study was to identify what nurses working in primary care settings perceive as necessary to support the life needs of people with type 2 diabetes. Articulate these needs with the needs expressed by people with diabetes in a previous study. This study demonstrates nurses' important contribution to analysing and designing people-centred care in their community. 

Towards applying the essential public health functions for building health systems resilience: A renewed list and key enablers for operationalization

The COVID-19 pandemic, climate change-related events, protracted conflicts, economic stressors and other health challenges, call for strong public health orientation and leadership in health system strengthening and policies. Applying the essential public health functions (EPHFs) represents a holistic operational approach to public health, which is considered to be an integrated, sustainable, and cost-effective means for supporting universal health coverage, health security and improved population health and wellbeing. As a core component of the Primary Health Care (PHC) Operational Framework, EPHFs also support the continuum of health services from health promotion and protection, disease prevention to treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative services. Comprehensive delivery of EPHFs through PHC-oriented health systems with multisectoral participation is therefore vital to meet population health needs, tackle public health threats and build resilience. In this perspective, we present a renewed EPHF list consisting of twelve functions as a reference to foster country-level operationalisation, based on available authoritative ...

2nd International Summit on Public Health and Preventive Medicine

2nd International Summit on Public Health and Preventive Medicine (ISPHPM2024), a premier event focusing on the latest developments in the field of public health and preventive medicine which is going to be held in Prague, Czech Republic during May 27-29, 2024.

The 2023 edition of ISPHPM conference took place in Brussels in May 2023 with a fabulous set of speakers, it was a huge success. This year's event will bring together healthcare professionals, researchers, and experts from around the world to discuss the latest advancements in public health. Join us for a day of education, networking, and knowledge exchange. This event will provide a valuable opportunity for the attendees to learn from each other’s work, exchange ideas, create networks and build collaborations.

Come join us for a 3 day event that promises to be both informative and inspiring!