Selected Topics - Health Policy and Advocacy

Events

• School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW - Upcoming Events

Global policies and related documents

• Choosing Health: making healthier choices easier
  This UK White Paper, published in 2004 sets out the key principles for supporting the public to make healthier and more informed choices in regards to their health. It outlines the government's programme to provide information and practical support to get people motivated and improve emotional well-being and access to services so that healthy choices are easier to make.
• Draft Legal Review of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) from a Health Policy Perspective
  "The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is one of the most important multilateral trade agreements to emerge from the Uruguay Round negotiations that created the World Trade Organization (WTO). GATS constitutes the multilateral legal framework through which WTO members will approach the progressive liberalization of trade in services, including health-related services. Health policy is an important social endeavor that faces both opportunities and challenges from GATS. Many factors, including the complexity of GATS, the lack of empirical data on international trade in health-related services and on the health effects of liberalized trade in services, and inequalities in resources and power between developed and developing countries create a difficult environment for people in public health and health care who want to understand the actual and potential impact of GATS on their activities."
• European Commission: Overview of Health Policy
  This site outlines the European Commission's approach to public health throughout Europe. It provides links to strategy and programme documents, health information, health determinants, risk assessment and threats to health.
• International Declaration of Health Rights
• Priorities for Research to Take Forward the Health Equity Policy Agenda
  Report from the WHO Taskforce on Health Systems Research Priorities for Equity in Health, October 15 2004, Coordinator Piroska Öskin, Department of Public Health Sciences, Division of International Health (IHCAR), Stockholm, Swede
• WHO Essential Drugs and Medicines Policy (EDM)
  This site provides access to WHO documents on essential medicines policy. It includes a definition of essential medicines, a library of essential medicines, guides to selection and use and links to a wide array of policy documents.
• WHO International Health Regulations
  "The purpose of the International Health Regulations is to ensure the maximum security against the international spread of diseases with minimum interference with world traffic."
• WHO Health Evidence Network
  HEN is an information service primarily for public health and health care decision-makers in the WHO European Region. It comprises two services: Answers to questions to support the decision-making process; and easy access to sources of evidence such as databases, documents and networks of experts.
• World Health Organisation: Evidence and Information for Policy
  “The Evidence for Health Policy site presents current activities relating to epidemiology and the burden of disease, cost-effectiveness of health care interventions, and health systems assessment and reform, including quality of care, ethical issues, financing, resource allocation, regulation and legislation.”

Reports, guidelines and projects

• Access to Essential Medicines
  A global campaign launched by Doctors Without Borders (Medicins Sans Frontieres) to guarantee access to essential medicines for all.
• Assessing Capacity for Health Policy and Systems Research in Middle and Lower Income Countries
  This report by Miguel A. Gonzalez Blok and Anne Mills, 2003 examines the capacity of health systems in middle and low income countries to address the increasing demand for evidence based health care.
• Bridging the gap: The role of monitoring and evaluation in evidence-based policy making
  “This publication [by UNICEF, the World Bank and the International Development Evaluation Association] offers a number of strong contributions from senior officers in institutions dealing with Evidence-based policy making. These institutions are national and local governments, UNICEF, the World Bank and the International Development Evaluation Association. It tries to bring together the vision and lessons learned from different stakeholders on the strategic role of monitoring and evaluation in evidence-based policy making. These stakeholders are policy-makers, in their role of users of evidence, and researchers and evaluators, in their role of suppliers of evidence. The concept of 'evidence-based policy making' has been gaining currency over recent years. The use of strong evidence can make a difference to policy making in at least five ways: (i) Achieve recognition of a policy issue; (ii) Inform the design and choice of policy; (iii) Forecast the future; (iv) Monitor policy implementation; [and] (v) Evaluate policy impact.”
• Building Effective Research Policy Networks: Linking Function and Form
  We know that networks matter for international development. This short paper, published by the ODI addresses some of the main characteristics of networks to identify a set of criteria worth looking into to explain how networks can better carry out their given functions. This paper is based on the same premise as previous work: that, ideally, the process of setting up networks needs to begin by defining the functions they want to play and then choosing their structure accordingly.
• Capacity planning in health care: a review of the international experience: New policy brief on capacity planning
  "…This policy brief [by Stefanie Ettelt, Ellen Nolte, Sarah Thomson, Nicholas Mays, and the International Healthcare Comparisons Network] reviews approaches to capacity planning, a crucial component of health care governance. By concentrating on a selection of countries as diverse as Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and New Zealand, it aims to show a range of approaches to health care financing and organization, since both of these factors have an impact on approaches to capacity planning…."
• Commission on the future of Health Care in Canada publications
  The Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada's mandate was to make recommendations on sustaining a publicly-funded health system that balances investments in prevention and health maintenance with those directed to care and treatment. This page includes the final report of this commission.
• Complexity and Vagueness in the capability approach: strengths or weaknesses?
  Enrica Chiappero Martinetti , University of Pavia, 2004 - “This paper discusses the meanings of complexity and vagueness in relation to the capability approach and the implications of operational zing intrinsically complex and vague concepts such as poverty and well-being.”
• Does X Really Cause Y?
  Bryan Dowd and Robert Town, Academy Health, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Changes in Health, Care Financing and Organization (HCFO) program. September 2002 - "The purpose of this paper is to assist policymakers by providing an introduction to some of the problems associated with causal inference from empirical data.”
• European Policy: Health Impact Assessment: A Guide (EPHIA)
  Project Group: IMPACT, University of Liverpool, England; Institute of Public Health in Ireland; RIVM, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment Bilthoven, Netherlands; LOEGD Institute of Public Health GERMANY, May 2004. This document has been developed for the European Community and its institutions, and provides a guide to assessing or commissioning an assessment of the impacts of EU policies on human health.
• Evidence and Healthy Public Policy: Insights from Health and Political Sciences
  "This paper focuses on the requirements of healthy public policy, and more importantly the role of evidence, especially scientific evidence in the development of such policies. Simply put, this paper offers a critical account of the extent to which scientific evidence can have an impact on public policy. Drawing on health sciences literature on healthy public policy and political science literature on policy-making, this paper seeks to build a bridge between the worldview of health sciences and the worldview of political (and policy) science in order to offer some insight into how policy gets made and thereby offer some guideposts to those who wish to develop and promote healthy public policy. In particular, this paper focuses on two linked questions. First, in order to provide advice to those who might wish to promote healthy public policies, what do we know about how policy gets made and how and where evidence is most effectively used? Specifically, what are some of the available theories, or absent formal theories, models and frameworks, of the policy process and what role does evidence play in each? Second, building on the contemporary preoccupation with evidence-based decision-making (and, at least in some quarters, evidence-based public policy), in thinking about how public policy is made, what constitutes “evidence” and what is the role of evidence in the policy process?"
• Evidence based guidelines or collectively constructed "mindlines?" Ethnographic study of knowledge management in primary care
  John Gabbay, Wessex Institute for Health Research and Development, Community Clinical Sciences, University of Southampton; Andrée le May, School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Southampton , BMJ 2004;329:1013 (30 October) - The findings of this study highlight the potential advantage of exploiting existing formal and informal networking as a key to conveying evidence to clinicians.
• Health care outside hospitals: Accessing generalist and specialist care in eight countries
  "The delivery of health care is changing. While the acute hospital will always play a key role in the provision of health care...in many countries there is an increasing interest in the scope to transfer some types of care out of hospitals....This policy brief aims to describe a broad spectrum of models by exploring the arrangements that are in place in eight countries. This is intended to provide a basis for a more informed discussion on the future of health care outside the hospital."
• "Health Courts" and Accountability for Patient Safety
  Proposals that medical malpractice claims be removed from the tort system and processed in an alternative system, known as administrative compensation or “health courts,” attract considerable policy interest during malpractice “crises,” including the current one. This article published in the Milbank Quarterly Vol.84, No.3, 2006, describes current proposals for the design of a health court system and the system’s advantages for improving patient safety. Among these advantages are the cultivation of a culture of transparency regarding medical errors and the creation of mechanisms to gather and analyse data on medical injuries.
• Health for all? A critical analysis of public health policies in eight European countries
  “Scientific experts from eight different countries to write about the public health policies in their respective countries with a special emphasis on the equity aspect. The countries chosen represented different parts of Europe: from the northern (Denmark, Finland Norway and Sweden) via the western (England and the Netherlands) to the southern parts (Italy and Spain)”.
• Implementing the Bank's gender mainstreaming policy: second annual monitoring report
  This document outlines the World Bank's progress in implementing its gender mainstreaming strategy. This strategy includes the completion of country gender assessments, increased attention to gender issues in core diagnostic economic and sector work and in country assistance strategies and greatly increased attention to gender issues in project design and supervision.
• Improving the Health of the World's Poorest People
  This Policy Brief highlights the extent of the rich-poor health divide, the factors that play a role in health disparities, and approaches for improving the health of the poor.
• Is Evidence-Based Government Possible?
  This lecture, presented by Phillip Davies of the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, Cabinet Office, London discusses whether or not evidence based policy and evidence based government is possible or merely rhetorical device. It attempts to define evidence-based policy and considers factors other than evidence that influence policy making and policy implementation.
• "Knowledge to Policy":” Making the Most of Development Research
  "Does research influence public policy and decision-making and, if so, how? This book is the most recent to address this question, investigating the effects of research in the field of international development. It starts from a sophisticated understanding about how research influences public policy and decision-making. It shows how research can contribute to better governance in at least three ways: by encouraging open inquiry and debate; by empowering people with the knowledge to hold governments accountable; and by enlarging the array of policy options and solutions available to the policy process. ‘Knowledge to Policy’ examines the consequences of 23 research projects funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre. Key findings and case studies from Asia, Africa, and Latin America are presented in a reader-friendly, journalistic style, giving the reader a deeper grasp and understanding of approaches, contexts, relationships, and events."
• Legal Aspects of HIV/AIDS - A Guide for Policy and Law Reform
  This report, by Lance Gable, Katharina Gamharter, Lawrence O. Gostin, James G. Hodge, Jr., Rudolf V. Van Puymbroeck, states that "...Dealing successfully with HIV/AIDS cuts across almost all areas of government responsibility, and as the breadth of the 65 topics included in the Guide shows, there are many ways in which laws and regulations can either underpin or undermine good public health programs and responsible personal behaviors. The Guide indicates that statutes relating to many areas of human endeavor — from intimate private conduct to international travel — can contribute to stigma, discrimination, and exclusion or, contrariwise, can avoid and help remedy these inequities. Thus, in order to create a supportive legal framework it is important that governments identify and address effectively any gaps or other problematic aspects of their legislation and regulatory systems...".
• Life Course Health Development: An Integrated Framework for Developing Health, Policy, and Research
  Neal Halfon and Miles Hochstein, University of California, Los Angeles; National Center for Infancy and Early Childhood Health Policy - “This article describes the Life Course Health Development (LCHD) framework, which was created to explain how health trajectories develop over an individual’s lifetime and how this knowledge can guide new approaches to policy and research.”
• Magenta Book
  Government Chief Social Researcher’s Office, UK Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit - Cabinet Office –London, 2003. The Magenta Book is a set of guidance notes for policy evaluators and analysts, and people who use and commission policy evaluation.
• Performance measurement for health system improvement: experiences, challenges and prospects (Summary) "Performance measurement offers policy-makers a major opportunity to secure health system improvement and accountability. Its role is to improve the quality of decisions made by all actors within the health system, including patients, practitioners, managers, governments at all levels, insurers and other payers, politicians, and citizens as financial supporters. Recent major advances in information technology and increasing demands for health system accountability and patient choice have driven rapid advances in health system performance measurement. Health systems, however, are still in the relatively early stages of performance measurement, and major improvements are still needed in data collection, analytical methodologies, and policy development and implementation. Health system performance has a number of aspects – including population health, health outcomes from treatment, clinical quality and the appropriateness of care, responsiveness, equity and productivity – and progress is varied in the development of performance measures and data collection techniques for these different aspects. Securing improved performance measurement is an important stewardship task of government, as many of the benefits of performance measurement cannot be realized without the active leadership of government, whether through law, regulation, coordination or persuasion... Stewardship responsibilities associated with performance measurement can be summarized under the following headings: 1. development of a clear conceptual framework and a clear vision of the purpose of the performance measurement system; 2. design of data collection mechanisms; 3. information governance; 4. development of analytical devices and capacity to help understand the data; 5. development of appropriate data aggregation and presentational methods; 6. design of incentives to act on performance measures; 7. proper evaluation of performance-measurement instruments; and 8. managing the political process." Also available in French, German and Russian.
• Policies and practices for mental health in Europe: Meeting the challenges
  "[This] report by the WHO Regional Office for Europe, co-funded by the European Commission… provides data not hitherto available on mental health policy and practice across the WHO European Region. It also highlights important information gaps. Policies and Practices for Mental Heath in Europe allows for country-to-country comparisons on indicators such as numbers of psychiatrists, financing, community services, training of workforce, prescription of antidepressants, and representation of users and carers.…The data were obtained from the ministries of health of 42 European Member States. Over 150 figures and tables in the report demonstrate the diversity across the European Region, and allow country to country comparisons of indicators such as numbers of psychiatrists, financing, community services, training of the workforce, the prescription of anti-depressants and representation of users and carers."
• Revision of World Health Organisation's Health Regulations
  This document By David P Fidler, 2004 describes WHO's interim draft of the revised International Health Regulations which are the result of heightened efforts to combat global infectious disease particularly in the light of recent SARS and AVIAN flu outbreaks.
• Screening for Disease
  "The practice of screening in health care – that is, actively seeking to identify a disease or predisease condition in people who are presumed and presume themselves to be healthy – is one that has grown rapidly in recent years and now has wide acceptance in our societies. Originally, screening was introduced as a public health measure to detect conditions such as tuberculosis which might be a health hazard to the community. Since then demand for screening has greatly increased. It is now considered applicable to the prevention of disease and is considered to be a logical extension of medical practice. However, it has become apparent that there are also disadvantages, and as with all medical procedures, certain principles have to be satisfied before screening programmes are started."
• Sociology and policy science: just in time?
  This article by Philip Davies provides a broad overview of the relation between sociology and the skills and competencies required of policy analysts and social researchers.
• Sound Choices: Enhancing Capacity for Evidence-Informed Health Policy
  "…While health systems constraints are increasingly recognized as primary barriers to the scaling up of health services and achievement of health goals, knowledge regarding how to improve health systems is often weak and frequently not well-utilized in policy-making. The Review addresses how capacity constraints at the country level impede progress in generating policy-relevant health systems knowledge and employing such evidence in the policy process. Capacity constraints related to four main functions: (a) research priority-setting; (b) generating and disseminating knowledge; (c) knowledge amplification and filtration; and (d) finally applying evidence to policy process - are explored and illustrated using country examples. The Review concludes with practical lessons for different groups of stakeholders including national health leaders, research institutions and international funding and development agencies…".
• Strengthening Health Systems: The Role and Promise of Policy and Systems Research
  Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, Global Forum for Health Research, Geneva, November 2004 - "The central concern of this book is how knowledge of health systems can be significantly increased and effectively applied to improve the health of the worst-off of the world's population."
• To serve the community or oneself - the public servants dilemma
  This World Bank Report deals with the problem of embezzlement in public service delivery in the developing world. The authors investigate the determinants of corrupt behaviour by focusing on three aspects; embezzling by public servants, monitoring efforts by designated monitors and voting by members when provided with an opportunity to select a monitor.
• Use of Science in UK International Development Policy
  House of Commons - The Science and Technology Committee, UK Parliament , October 2004 - “This inquiry examines how science and technology are informing decisions on the spending of the aid budget, how research is being used to underpin policy making in international development, and how the UK is supporting science and technology in developing countries.”
• The utilisation of health research in policy-making: concepts, examples and methods of assessment
  Stephen R Hanney, Martin J Buxton and Maurice Kogan, Health Research Policy and Systems 2003, 1:2 - This article concludes that health research utilisation can be better understood and enhanced by developing assessment methods informed by conceptual analysis and review of previous studies.
• Using Health Research in Policy and Practice: Case Studies from Nine Countries
  Ray Moynihan, AcademyHealth, The Milbank Memorial Fund - 2004 -This study examines the application of an evidence based approach to health care by describing case studies in nine countries. It looks at the relationship between researcher and practitioner as well the difficulties of ensuring that knowledge gained from the best evidence is actually used in practice.
• Where are the patients in decision-making about their own care?
  "Patients can play a distinct role in protecting their health, choosing appropriate treatments for episodes of ill health and managing chronic disease. Considerable evidence suggests that patient engagement can improve their experience and satisfaction and also can be effective clinically and economically. This policy brief outlines what the research evidence tells us about the effects of engaging patients in their clinical care, and it reviews policy interventions that have been (or could be) implemented in different health care systems across Europe. In particular, it focuses on strategies to improve: health literacy; treatment decision-making; and self-management of chronic conditions."
• WHO Program "Health for All in the 21st Century"
  This is an introduction to the health policy for all framework for the WHO European Region which addresses the World Health Declaration adopted by the world health community at the 51st Health Assembly, May 1998.

Educational resources

• Conflict sensitive approaches to development, humanitarian assistance, and peace building (FEWER)
  This two-year programme was designed to help integrate conflict-sensitive practice into development, humanitarian assistance and peacebuilding, and to help people working in these fields to contribute more effectively to conflict prevention.
• Fatal Indifference: The G8, Africa, and Global Health
  Ronald Labonte, Ted Schrecker, David Sanders, and Wilma Meeus - This book examines the aid, trade and investment practices of G8 member nations, providing a 'report card' of commitments over the three G8 summits form 1999-2000 and a preliminary assessment of the most recent summit in 2002.
• Health Impact Assessment: A Practical Guide
  “In NSW for the past five years, NSW Health and the Centre for Health Equity Training Research and Evaluation (part of the UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity) have been working together to build capacity to undertake Health Impact Assessment. This program of ‘learning by doing’ Health Impact Assessment is unique in its approach, and has resulted in a strong understanding of Health Impact Assessment grounded in practical experience. This guide is a direct result of that investment and experience.” [August 2007]
• Medical and Public Health Law Site
  This site is presented by Edward P Richards, Harvey A Pelter Professor of Law & Director Program in Law, Science and Public Health Louisiana State University.
• Moving Ideas Health policy page
  Moving Ideas is a US based information source of progressive policy information aiming to engage citizens in activism via the internet. This site includes information on a range of issues and organisations involved in progressive activism.
• PharmWeb
  PharmWeb is a portal to an extensive range of pharmaceutical and health care related internet resources. It includes links to conferences and meetings, worldwide pharmacy colleges, departments and schools, discussion forums and chat sessions, job vacancies, statistics and government bodies.
• Public Attitudes to Public Health Policy, 2004
  This report examines the public attitude to public health policy in the UK. It explores four main themes; people's health expectations, individual responsibility and control, the role of government and the role of the National Health Service.
• Q-Web
  Q Web is an interactive global resource-base and platform for knowledge-sharing between organisations, students, researchers and individuals who are interested in, working with or researching the field of Gender Equality, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights as well as Empowerment.

Organisations and Networks

UN and multinational

• Health Action International
  HAI is an non-profit, global network of health, development, consumer and other public interest groups throughout Europe working for a more rational use of medicinal drugs. It represents the interests of consumers in drug policy and believes that all drugs marketed should be safe, effective, affordable and meet real medical needs.

Government

Non Government

• Committee on Health Politics (USA)
  The Committee on Health Politics is an unaffiliated group of The American Political Science Association consisting of social scientists with a strong professional interest in health policy.
• EssentialDrugs.org
  An electronic conference to allow health professionals, particularly in developing countries where access to telephone and facsimile may be prohibitively expensive and postal services can be unreliable to share information in the field of essential drugs.
• HandsNet: Linking the Human Services Community Online (USA)
  A national, non-profit organization that promotes information sharing, cross-sector collaboration and advocacy among individuals and organizations working on a broad range of public interest issues.
• Institute for Safe Medication Practices (USA)
  "A nonprofit organization that works closely with healthcare practitioners and institutions, regulatory agencies, professional organizations and the pharmaceutical industry to provide education about adverse drug events and their prevention. The Institute provides an independent review of medication errors that have been voluntarily submitted by practitioners to a national Medication Errors Reporting Program (MERP) operated by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) in the USA."
• International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology
  "A non-profit international professional membership organization dedicated to promoting pharmacoepidemiology, the science which applies epidemiologic approaches to studying the use, effectiveness, value and safety of pharmaceuticals"
• Lister Hill Center for Health Policy
  Located at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the center fosters research through the work of its scholars whose primary research interests are: health care markets and managed care; maternal and child health; management in public health organisation; and clinical health services research.
• Manitoba Centre for Health Policy
  "This centre undertakes population-based health services research and policy analyses using the unique Manitoba Health Research Data Base to describe and explain patterns of care and profiles of health and illness"
• Quality Use of Medicines (Australia)
  "The aim of Australia's Quality Use of Medicines policy is to improve the way medicines are prescribed and used, to ensure better health outcomes for all Australians. The policy focuses on an evidence based approach, with an emphasis on appropriate, safe and efficacious use.

Academic Institutions with particular focus in this area

• Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis (CHEPA)
  An interdisciplinary research centre based at McMaster University committed to producing high quality, original socially relevant research in health policy analysis and economics, and to disseminating research evidence to decision makers in the health sector. Its research spans a broad range of topics including organisation, funding, and delivery of healthcare, the evaluation of healthcare programs and technologies, the measurement of health at the individual and population level, the determinants of population health, and the process of health policy making.
• Centre for Health Services and Policy Research
  Located at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada), the Centre's overall mission is to stimulate scientific inquiry into issues of health in population groups, and ways in which health services can best be organised, funded and delivered. Its client base includes researchers, health care policy-makers, health care providers, graduate students and the public.
• School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW
• School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW - Research

Key Conferences, conference and workshop reports

Coming conferences

Conference reports

• Health and Foreign Policy Forum, Academy Health
  This conference, held in Washington in February 2005 provided an overview of the issues that have emerged at the intersection of health and foreign policy, emphasizing the different professional and political perspectives that currently compose public policy debates. Video and transcripts of conference presentations are available from this site.
• Expert Workshop on the Measurement of Social Capital for Public Policy
  June 8, 2004, PRI Project, Social Capital as a Public Policy Tool In collaboration with Statistics Canada - "This workshop was organized by the Policy Research Initiative (PRI) as part of its interdepartmental project “Social Capital as a Public Policy Tool”, in partnership with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and in collaboration with Statistics Canada."
• OECD World Forum: Statistics, Knowledge and Policy
  This conference, held in Palermo, Italy 2004 discussed the issue of assessing the current situations of economies and societies. It brought together policy makers, academics, statisticians, media experts and civil society representatives to compare national experiences and strategies and to identify challenges for future development and evaluating how the OECD can work to improve the present understanding of economic, social and environmental trends.

Journals, Newsletters, Forums

• Take Back Healthcare
  Take Back Healthcare provides news and analysis about the uninsured, single-payer, employee health benefits, medical insurance, medical tourism, Medicare, Medicaid, health costs, drug costs, the Canadian and other foreign plans, and more.

Bibliographies, Libraries

Public health bookshops

• Public Health bookshop