Goal setting and knowledge generation through health policy and systems research in low- and middle-income countries

Political Impetus: Towards a Successful Agenda-Setting for Inclusive Health Policies in Low- and Middle-Income Countries; Comment on “Shaping the Health Policy Agenda: The Case of Safe Motherhood Policy in Vietnam”

Agenda-setting is a crucial step for inclusive health policies in the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Enlightened by Ha et al manuscript, this commentary paper argues that ‘political impetus’ is the key to the successful agenda-setting of health policies in LMICs, though other determinants may also play the role during the process. This Vietnamese case study presents a good example fo...

“Wood Already Touched by Fire is not Hard to Set Alight”; Comment on “Constraints to Applying Systems Thinking Concepts in Health Systems: A Regional Perspective from Surveying Stakeholders in Eastern Mediterranean Countries”

A major constraint to the application of any form of knowledge and principles is the awareness, understanding and acceptance of the knowledge and principles. Systems Thinking (ST) is a way of understanding and thinking about the nature of  health systems and how to make and implement decisions within health systems to maximize desired and minimize undesired effects. A major constraint to applyi...

Achieving Universal Health Coverage by Focusing on Primary Care in Japan: Lessons for Low- and Middle-Income Countries

When the Japanese government adopted Western medicine in the late nineteenth century, it left intact the infrastructure of primary care by giving licenses to the existing practitioners and by initially setting the hurdle for entry into medical school low. Public financing of hospitals was kept minimal so that almost all of their revenue came from patient charges. When social health insurance (S...

Are We Asking All the Right Questions About Quality of Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries?

Strategic Purchasing: The Neglected Health Financing Function for Pursuing Universal Health Coverage in Low- and Middle-Income Countries; Comment on “What’s Needed to Develop Strategic Purchasing in Healthcare? Policy Lessons from a Realist Review”

Sanderson et al’s realist review of strategic purchasing identifies insights from two strands of theory: the economics of organisation and inter-organisational relationships. Our findings from a programme of research conducted by the RESYST (Resilient and Responsive Health Systems) consortium in seven countries echo these results, and add to them the crucial area of org...