Background Health policies are important instruments for improving population health. However, experience suggests that policies designed for the whole population do not always benefit the most vulnerable. Participation of vulnerable groups in the policy-making process provides an opportunity for them to influence decisions related to their health, and also to exercise their rights. This paper ...

In this paper, a fuzzy multi-criteria decision making model is presented based on a feed forward artificial neural network. This model is used to capture and represent the decision makers’ preferences. The topology of the neural network model is developed to train the model. The proposed model can use historical data and update the database information for alternatives over time for future deci...

Conflicts of interest, situations where personal or organizational considerations have compromised or biased professional judgment and objectivity, can weaken scientific credibility, pose threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, and are often precursors to corruption. Here, we review historical and international examples of conflicts of interest and their impacts on global biodiversity. ...

In making healthcare management decisions, clinicians must weigh up the benefits and the harms of alternative strategies. Guidelines are useful tools for administrators, policy makers, managers, clinical leaders and care givers to achieve this aim. Guidelines recommendations may be produced in three different ways: small panels of experts, consensus conferences and on the basis of evidence. Exp...

Usually, public health actors do not have the power to make public policy decisions, and they represent only one voice among many: policy making is influenced by numerous groups and organizations with an interest in the outcome (Milio, 2001). It is therefore important to present the public health perspective while remaining aware of the other perspectives being expressed and how these may reson...

The aim of this study was to critically examine how nurses have been involved in national policy processes in the Kenyan health sector. The paper reports qualitative results from a larger mixed method study. National nonnursing decision-makers and nurse leaders, and provincial managers as well as frontline nurse managers from two Kenyan districts were purposefully selected for interviews. Inter...

Many of the UK policy-makers who were directly responsible for taking policy decisions on bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) prior to March 1996 claim that, at the time, their approach exemplified the application of an ultra precautionary approach and of rigorous science-based policy-making. (11) We argue that these claims are not convincing because government policies were not genuinely pr...

policy capacity focuses on the managerial and organizational abilities to inform policy decisions with sound research and analysis, and facilitate policy implementation with operational efficiency. it stems from a view of the policy process that is rational and positivistic, in which optimal policy choices can be identified, selected, and implemented with objectivity. by itself, however, policy...