health policy has been termed a ‘chameleon concept’, referring to its ability to take on different forms of disciplinarity as well as different roles and functions. this paper extends paton’s analysis by exploring the paradox of health policy as a field of academic inquiry—sitting across many of the boundaries of social science but also marginalised by them. it situates contemporary approaches ...

BACKGROUND Mental illnesses are increasingly recognised as a leading cause of disability worldwide, yet many countries lack a mental health policy or have an outdated, inappropriate policy. This paper explores the development of appropriate mental health policies and their effective implementation. It reports comparative findings on the processes for developing and implementing mental health po...

Background SUPPORT tools consist of 18 articles addressing the health policy-makers so that they can learn how to make evidence-informed health policies. These tools have been particularly recommended for developing countries. The present study tries to explain the process of evidence utilization for developing policy documents in the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME) and...

Foreign policy, especially trade policy, can have dramatic but rarely considered effects on public health. International human rights covenants oblige governments to scrutinise their foreign policy, including trade policy, for its impact on the progressive realisation of the right to health. Health is both a means and an end of development policy, but government investments in health are inadeq...

Although much research has been done on the existence and formation of risk and issue based health policies, there is only little insight in health policy development processes in a broader context. This hampers intervention in these policy processes to adequately develop integrated and effective health policies. Legislation in the Netherlands requires municipalities to develop and implement lo...

Background New technologies constitute an important cost-driver in healthcare, but the dynamics that lead to their emergence remains poorly understood from a health policy standpoint. The goal of this paper is to clarify how entrepreneurs, investors, and regulatory agencies influence the value of emerging health technologies.   Methods Our 5-year qualitative research program examined the proces...

background maternal health remains a central policy concern in vietnam. with a commitment to achieving the millennium development goal (mdg) 5 target of maternal mortality rate (mmr) of 70/100 000 by 2015, the ministry of health (moh) issued the national plan for safe motherhood (npsm) 2003-2010. in 2008, reproductive health, including safe motherhood (sm) became a national health target progra...

Abstract T his paper has considered the impact of unemployment on health capital in 136 countries during 2002–2010. The review of presented literature on health capital shows that the life expectancy has been considered as a proxy for health capital. Although, there are numerous studies that surveyed the mental and physical effects of unemployment, but there is no previous study in ou...