Introduction In 2008, the Global Health Research Initiative (GHRI) invited applications from teams of researchers and decision-makers who were interested in conducting research related to human resources for health and the implementation and use of integrated health information systems in Africa, with special attention to equity considerations. These thematic areas constituted the focus of the ...

Purpose: Although standardization is seen as the key to ensuring interoperability of healthcare information systems, the large numbers of standards available can make the selection decision difficult especially for a developing nation. This paper reports on a study of ehealth standards development and the level of African countries’ participation in the development process. We explored the fact...

zār is the term used to describe a form of spirit possession common in northern african, eastern african, and some middle-eastern societies. although these regions share some cultural similarities arising from their history of slavery, in these places, zār varies in prevalence, clinical characteristics, and social context. based on a selective review of the literature, this paper looks at the p...

Introduction: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is known to be associated with deterioration of mental health. However, it is clear that this link is over and beyond the effects of socio-economic factors and other medical conditions. This study had two aims: 1) to compare the association between CKD and general anxiety disorder (GAD) among the two major ethnic groups of American Bla...

BACKGROUND The majority of South African aging population are women, who spend late adulthood experiencing natural menopause. Despite the government spending billions of rand on different services for ageing women, menopausal challenges to African women still receive little attention. OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to explore and describe the perceptions of African women regarding natura...

factors influencing cross-national diffusion of mental health policy are important to understand but complex to research. this commentary discusses shen’s research study on cross-national diffusion of mental health policy; examines the extent to which the three questions researched by shen (whether countries are more likely to have a mental health policy (a) the earlier a country becomes a memb...

there are two dominant approaches to describe and understand the anatomy of complete health and well-being systems internationally. yet, neither approach has been able to either predict or explain occasional but dramatic crises in health and well-being systems around the world and in developed emerging market or developing country contexts. as the impacts of such events can be measured not simp...

For the past two decades, the discussion regarding the effect of ICT on health systems is becoming apparent. However, past studies have mainly focused on ICT impact on specific social-economic phenomena. Little empirical research on ICT and health systems exists. Many African countries have invested in ICT and there is a need to examine if such investments have impacted on health system of thes...

Background. Increased co-ordination and co-operation between traditional biomedical health systems in South Africa (SA) is a national priority. To improve care, practitioners both must learn to recognise the value of their parallel counterparts, such lessons should begin medical school. However, there little research regarding way which SA’s students are taught interact with medicine (TM) syste...