‘How then can discussions in Global Health begin to embrace global diversity?’ asks an editorial in the latest issue of Health Policy and Planning. I would argue that forums like HIFA are one way to do this and have invited the authors to join us…

CITATION: Privilege and inclusivity in shaping Global Health agendas
Kabir Sheikh, Sara C Bennett, Fadi el Jardali and George Gotsadze.
Health Policy Plan. (2016)
doi: 10.1093/heapol/czw146
Corresponding author: kabir.sheikh@phfi.org

EXTRACTS
‘Northern voices dominate Global Health discussions… Only two out of the 16-member Board of Directors of the Consortium of Universities of Global Health come from the global South (CUGH 2016). No current or past president and only one current member of the World Health Summit’s scientific committee is from the global South (WHS 2016)…

‘Only 15% of the world’s population lives in high-income countries. Yet Global Health conferences continue to be dominated by invited Northern speakers and important committees on Global Health composed mainly of Northerners. The words of a few from the global North wield a disproportionate power that carries well beyond their own boundaries. How can it be acceptable that these groups continue to dominate in deciding what problems we think about in Global Health and how we approach them?

‘The lack of inclusivity in Global Health carries major risks for the field. The most excellent research study or Global Health program risks failure unless it is informed by and contextualized by the people close to where change is sought. The Ebola crisis starkly illustrated the follies of a top-down system of global response to local health problems, and the crying need to develop local institutions and systems, access the experiential and tacit knowledge of local and country actors and listen more closely to voices from the ground…

‘How then can discussions in Global Health begin to embrace global diversity?… We need to push towards real inclusion so that diverse voices are not just brought to the table but are empowered to shape the debate and set the agenda…

‘Inclusivity… must be written into the fabric of Global Health so that the field becomes a learning system and community, and ultimately more relevant, where it is needed most.’
—

Best wishes, Neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa.org

Many HIFA members have emphasised the importance of community engagement, communication and healthcare information to contain epidemics such as Ebola. This paper in Health Policy and Planning confirms these observations. ‘Much of the decline in the epidemic curve was driven by critical behaviour changes within local communities, rather than by international efforts that came after the epidemic had turned.’

CITATION: Impact of interventions and the incidence of ebola virus disease in Liberia — implications for future epidemics
Thomas D Kirsch, Heidi Moseson, Moses Massaquoi, Tolbert G Nyenswah, Rachel Goodermote, Isabel Rodriguez-Barraquer, Justin Lessler, Derek Cumings, and David H Peters

Corresponding author: tkirsch1@jhmi.edu

ABSTRACT

To better understand the impact of national and global efforts to contain the Ebola virus disease epidemic of 2014–15 in Liberia, we provide a detailed timeline of the major interventions and relate them to the epidemic curve.

In addition to personal experience in the response, we systematically reviewed situation reports from the Liberian government, UN, CDC, WHO, UNICEF, IFRC, USAID, and local and international news reports to create the timeline. We extracted data on the timing and nature of activities and compared them to the timeline of the epidemic curve using the reproduction number—the estimate of the average number of new cases caused by a single case.

Interventions were organized around five major strategies, with the majority of resources directed to the creation of treatment beds. We conclude that no single intervention stopped the epidemic; rather, the interventions likely had reinforcing effects, and some were less likely than others to have made a major impact. We find that the epidemic’s turning coincided with a reorganization of the response in August–September 2014, the emergence of community leadership in control efforts, and changing beliefs and practices in the population. Ebola Treatment Units were important for Ebola treatment, but the vast majority of these treatment centre beds became available after the epidemic curve began declining. Similarly, the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response was launched after the epidemic curve had already turned.

These findings have significant policy implications for future epidemics and suggest that much of the decline in the epidemic curve was driven by critical behaviour changes within local communities, rather than by international efforts that came after the epidemic had turned. Future global interventions in epidemic response should focus on building community capabilities, strengthening local ownership, and dramatically reducing delays in the response.

KEY MESSAGES
– The epidemic curve began decreasing before most global efforts were in place, limiting their impact on stopping the epidemic’s spread.
– Future global interventions should focus on strengthening local leadership, individual and community behaviour change, along with better body management and burial.
– Early models of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia and the resulting global strategies highlighted less important interventions, notably the rapid building of ETUs, and proved inaccurate.
—

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa.org

Below are the citation, key messages and extracts of a new paper in Health Policy and Planning. The paper raises questions about the availability and use of healthcare information and knowledge. It draws attention to the know-do gap: the gap between what health workers know and what they do, and links this with ‘low motivation’, ‘lack of guidance’ and ‘no drive for providers to perform’.

CITATION: Perceptions on diabetes care provision among health providers in rural Tanzania: a qualitative study
Mary Mwangome, Eveline Geubbels, Paul Klatser and Marjolein Dieleman.
Health Policy Plan. (2016)
doi: 10.1093/heapol/czw143
http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/10/20/heapol.czw143.full?papetoc

Corresponding author: mmwangome@ihi.or.tz; mmwangome@gmail.com

KEY MESSAGES
– A know–do gap exists among providers regarding diabetes care provision.
– Self-management support to patients is limited and sometimes contradictory.
– Guidance for diabetes services at facility and district levels must be strengthened if diabetes services are to be provided according to the ICCC framework in this rural district.

EXTRACTS
‘over 60% of persons with diabetes in Tanzania do not know they have it (Kavishe et al. 2015)’

‘Whereas it has been shown in other Tanzanian settings that health workers lacked knowledge on diabetes care (Peck et al. 2014), health providers in our study seemed to have some knowledge of what was expected of them but did not practice according to that knowledge. Although providers gave reasons for not performing tasks, such as financial and geographical constraints for not tracking patients, there seemed to be minimal effort to improve the services in terms of patient referral, patient recording and patient education practices, especially at the district-hospital.

‘These observations point to a know–do gap, which has also been demonstrated among reproductive and child health service providers in Tanzanian and is thought to exist across Africa among health workers in general (Soucat and Scheffler 2013). The know–do gap is associated with low levels of motivation and professionalism (Leonard and Masatu 2010). Motivation of workers determines their performance and their performance determines the quality of services they deliver (Dussault and Dubois 2003). In our setting, low motivation and lack of guidance to providers could be possible factors contributing to the performance limitations as there was no drive for providers to perform. Improving human resources management and assuring guidance and support in diabetes care at facility level could address the know–do gap and improve performance of health providers in rural settings (Soucat and Scheffler 2013).’
—

Best wishes, Neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa.org

‘Recent analysis has identified 11 health interventions that could save more than 6 million mothers and children by 2030, if they are invested in 24 countries’, says an article in The Guardian’s Global development professionals network.’ Full text http://bit.ly/2eq6IeT

‘Achieving the ambitious target to end maternal and child deaths, enshrined in the sustainable development goals (SDGs), will require ingenuity. The good news is that 11 health innovations could save more than 6 million mothers and children by 2030, if they are invested in and used widely in 24 priority countries…

‘The 11 innovations modelled in our analysis, crowdsourced from experts around the world, are gamechanging health technologies and approaches that will have wide-scale impact, ensure healthier babies, protect mothers, and secure better health in the long term.

1 Injectable contraceptives…
2 Better pneumonia treatment…
3 Kangaroo mother care…
4 Chlorinators for water treatment…
5 Antiseptic gel…
6 Single-dose anti-malarial drugs…
7 Neonatal resuscitators…
8 Low-cost balloon tamponade…
9 Drugs to stop blood loss after childbirth…
10 Rice fortification…
11 New tests for a life-threatening maternal condition.’

A personal comment: Most of the above are basic interventions and have been available for decades. The article says nothing about implementation (other than a brief comment on funding), and yet this is the fundamental issue. As we discussed on HIFA recently (Thematic Discussion on Implementation Research, supportd by TDR, WHO, The Lancet): ‘Millions of people die needlessly every year because they did not receive basic lifesaving interventions. Implementation research is all about finding ways to improve access to medical treatments and other health services. There is no area of research that is more important in terms of its potential to save lives and reduce suffering.’

Best wishes, Neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa.org

Below are the citation and key messages of a new paper in Health Policy and Planning. This illustrates a new dimension – intra-governmental coordination and cooperation – that was not described in our previous discussion. The paper appears to support WHO’s promotion of ‘Health in All Policies’ (http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/frameworkforcountryaction/en/) although the authors do not use the term.

CITATION: Navigating institutional complexity in the health sector: lessons from tobacco control in Kenya
Raphael Lencucha, Peter Magati and Jeffrey Drope
Health Policy Plan. (2016) 31 (10): 1402-1410.
doi: 10.1093/heapol/czw094
http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/content/31/10/1402.full?etoc

Corresponding author. raphael.lencucha@mcgill.ca

KEY MESSAGES
– Policy implementation is influenced by intra-governmental coordination and cooperation.
– Frameworks that have used to analyse tobacco control policy development and implementation have largely focused on the dynamics between government and tobacco industry interests.
– Our findings point to the need to expand this framework to include institutional and bureaucratic elements.
– These elements contribute to a more robust understanding of the barriers and facilitators of policy implementation.

Best wishes, Neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa.org

Below are the citation and selected extracts of an ediorial in the November 2016 issue of the WHO Bulletin. The full text is freely available here: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/94/11/16-185918.pdf?ua=1

CITATION: Research on community-based health workers is needed to achieve the sustainable development goals
Dermot Maher & Giorgio Cometto
Bull World Health Organ 2016;94:786–786 | doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.16.185918

SELECTED EXTRACTS:

We identify five key issues for consideration in building this evidence base.

First, while there is a wealth of research experience on the role of community-based health workers regarding communicable diseases and maternal and child health, there is less research on
their role regarding noncommunicable diseases…

Second, more attention should be paid to cross-cutting enabling factors, for example, education, accreditation and regulation, management and supervision, effective linkage to professional cadres, motivation and remuneration, and provision of essential drugs and commodities…

Third, there is a research gap in understanding how to ensure the sustainability of programmes supported by community-based health workers, by using innovative national planning, governance,
legal and financing mechanisms…

Fourth, previous research experience on the role of community-based health workers represents a mix of varying degrees of quality, while the emphasis of future research must be on scientific
rigour to strengthen the evidence base for policy and practice.

Finally, it is important to avoid too narrow a disease- or intervention-specific focus to community-based health workers’ research…
—

Best wishes, Neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa.org

The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) wishes to inform the African Social Science community and its partners that the initial framework of the African Citation Index (ACI) has been delivered. The Index is presently undergoing testing while data build-up is on-going and subscription to access the index will soon be open to institutions and individuals.

The Rationale for the Index
A citation index is a digital library infrastructure required for much deeper understanding of the nature and extent of scholarly information production, dissemination and use. Hitherto there have existed bibliographies and other reference sources. While these resources remain very useful in meeting the information needs of people, they do not contain Meta-information and their derivatives which are relevant for understanding the characteristics of users, patterns of use and characteristics of the publications.

Africa has been very poorly represented in western citation indexes; these indexes are also inaccessible due mainly to dominant fundamentalist methodologies of knowledge valuation which attribute poor quality and low value to research reports emanating from developing regions. This situation has been condemned by numerous leading scholars in Africa and underscores the need for a local citation index of African scholarly literature.

Why do we need the Citation Index?
Africa needs the citation index:
•       to provide information on research already performed in order to support ongoing research;
•       to provide information on the evolution of scientific knowledge and on the pursuit of science as a human activity;
•       to provide information that will be required to manage scholarly activities, and;
•       to provide an authoritative curated list of journals in Africa that meet high quality criteria set for the Index.

In addition to the above, the citation index will enable Africa to:
•       monitor the use and users, sources and characteristics of African scientific publications;
•       establish the visibility and productivity of scientists, disciplines, institutions and countries based on high quality local content;
•       know the core competencies and paradigmatic shifts in knowledge production in Africa;
•       understand the pattern of knowledge exchange and balance of intellectual influence in Africa and internationally;
•       map scholarly areas and fields to provide information about relevance and spread of research endeavours, as well as
•       study of the evolution of research/science.

African Citation Index – Location and Operational Mechanism
(i)     African Citation Index shall be located in the Council for the Development of Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in Dakar Senegal.
(ii)    Data creation and entry shall be initially centralised in Dakar until the project matures when data creation will then be decentralised in select locations in Africa.
Access to the Index
Access to the resources in the index shall be based on annual subscription.

Languages of the index
The resources shall be indexed in two languages namely: English and French. Extension to Arabic and Portuguese will be considered in the course of time.

Data Depth of African Citation Index
Five years retrospective data from select journals shall be inputted initially and after successful demonstration, the rest of the identified select journals data will be inputted.

Criteria for journal inclusion/selection
i.      The journal must be of African continent origin
ii.     The journal must have a board of editors of experts in the field/disciplinary area of the journal
iii.    The journal must be peer reviewed and research oriented
iv.     Coverage – all disciplines
v.      The journals must have an ISSN
vi.     The overall scientific quality of the journal should be high and it must conform to international conventions
vii.    The documents or journal must have a minimum of one issue per year.

Disciplinary coverage of the Index
The index will cover the following:
•       Science Citation Index (ASCI)
•       Social Science Citation Index (ASSCI)
•       Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AAHI)
•       Conferences Citation Index (ACCI)
•       Book Citation, and, (ABCI)
•       Data Citation Index (ADCI)

Types of Documents to be indexed
African Citation Index will index the following types of documents:
•       Research articles
•       Review articles
•       Short communication
•       Editorials
•       Research notes
•       Case studies
•       Research methods
•       Opinion papers
•       Observations (R&D)
•       Special articles
•       Conference papers
•       Patents

Availability
The Index will soon be available for free public access (for testing purposes only).

Application for Admission of Serials/Journals
To apply for the inclusion of a journal into the index, please visit: WWW.africancitationindex.codesria.org (to be active soon) and complete the journal admission form. For further enquiry please contact Dr Williams E. Nwagwu, africancitationindex@codesria.sn.

You may consult these Resources
Nwagwu, WE (2006). Cybernating the academe: Centralized scholarly ranking and visibility of scholars in the developing world Journal of Information Science, 36 (2) 2010, pp. 228–241.
Nwagwu, WE. (2006). Organising and Monitoring Research Production and Performance in Africa: Towards an African Citation Index. Electronic Publishing in Africa in the Digital Era. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Electronic Publishing and Dissemination, Leiden, Holland, CODESRIA, 91 – 109pp.
Nwagwu, W.E. (2008). Online Journals and Visibility of Science in Africa: A Role for African Social Science Citation Index. Putting African Journals Online: Opportunities, Implications and Limits. Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Electronic Publishing and Dissemination, Dakar: CODESRIA, pp 1-14.
The World Bank (2014). Improving the Quality and Quantity of Scientific Research in Africa. Sep. 30th, 2014.
wa Thiongo N. (2005). Europhone or African Memory: The challenge of the pan-Africanist Intellectual in the Era of Globalization. In Mkandawire T (Ed). African Intellectuals. Rethinking Politics, Language, gender and Development. Dakar: CODESRIA.

HIFA profile: Williams Nwagwu teaches Informetrics and other quantitative applications in Information Science at the Africa Regional Centre for Information Science (ARCIS), University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Dr Nwagwu is on the editorial board, as well as the being the Editor (ICT, Africa) of the World Review of Science and Technology for Sustainable Development (WRSTSD, http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalCODE=wrstsd), a journal of the World Association for Sustainable Development located in University of Sussex in England.  willieezi AT yahoo.com

More

Below are extracts of an opinion piece by Julia Belluz, Senior health correspondent and evidence enthusiast
Read the full text online here: http://www.vox.com/2015/3/23/8264355/research-study-hype

—
“There’s a big, big, difference between how the media think about news and how scientists think about news,” Naomi Oreskes, a Harvard professor of the history of science, recently told me in an interview. “For you, what makes it news is that it’s new — and that creates a bias in the media to look for brand new results. My view would be that brand new results would be the most likely to be wrong.”

It’s a fact that all studies are biased and flawed in their own unique ways. The truth usually lies somewhere in a flurry of research on the same question. This means real insights don’t come by way of miraculous, one-off findings or divinely ordained eureka moments; they happen after a long, plodding process of vetting and repeating tests, and peer-to-peer discussion. The aim is to make sure findings are accurate and not the result of a quirk in one experiment or the biased crusade of a lone researcher…

We don’t wait for scientific consensus; we report a little too early, and we lead patients and policymakers down wasteful, harmful, or redundant paths that end in dashed hope and failed medicine…

More often than not, single studies contradict one another — such as the research on foods that cause or prevent cancer. The truth can be found somewhere in the totality of the research, but we report on every study in isolation underneath flip-flopping headlines. (Red wine will add years to your life one week, and kill you quicker the next.)…

I often wonder whether there is any value in reporting very early research. Journals now publish their findings, and the public seizes on them, but this wasn’t always the case: journals were meant for peer-to-peer discussion, not mass consumption.

For my part, I’ve tried to report new studies in context, and use systematic reviews — meta-analyses of all the best studies on clinical questions — wherever possible… I try to proceed cautiously, to remind myself that most of what I’m seeing today is hopelessly flawed, that there’s value in looking back.
—

Best wishes, Neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa.org

‘The Lancet’s Maternal Health Series paints a sobering picture of the state of maternal health today…’ says a Comment in The Lancet by Lynn Freedman (Averting Maternal Death and Disability Program, Columbia University, USA).

‘Seemingly, what counts is that facility-based delivery has increased, sometimes dramatically. [But what] do women experience when they arrive at facilities ready to give birth?’

‘Suellen Miller and colleagues identify 51 high-quality global and national clinical practice guidelines issued since 2010 for routine maternity care in facilities. Focusing on middle-income countries to determine what actually transpires, they document pervasive, health-threatening deviations from those guidelines, characterised by too little, too late (insufficient appropriate care) and too much, too soon (excessive medicalisation).’

Miller et al point out that ‘On the continuum of maternal health care, two extreme situations exist: too little, too late (TLTL) and too much, too soon (TMTS) [eg excessive use of episiotomy and caesarean section]’. While the former and latter are often perceived as problems of LMICs and high-income countries, respectively, these two extremes often co-exist within the same country [and even, I would suggest, within the same health facility and at different times in the care of the same patient].

The paper highlights (inter alia) that ‘women value not only appropriate clinical interventions, but relevant, timely information and support so they can maintain dignity and control’ and that care should include:

‘- Provide information about normal course of pregnancy, including breastfeeding if possible, by written material…
– Provide information about consumption of well cooked meat, drinking water and food preparation hygiene, washing hands after gardening and handling of animals (cats), to prevent toxoplasma infection and other infectious diseases…
– Treat every woman with respect, provide her with all information about what she might expect, ask her about her expectations, and involve her in the decisions about her care…
– At time of discharge from health facility, provide information about danger signs for the mother and baby, and counsel women on adequate nutrition, hygiene, handwashing, and safe sex…’

Both papers are freely available (after free registration):

Citation 1: Lynn P. Implementation and aspiration gaps: whose view counts? Thye Lancet Volume 388, No. 10056, p2068–2069, 29 October 2016  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31530-6

Citation 2: Miller, S, Abalos, E, Chamillard, M et al. Beyond too little, too late and too much, too soon: a pathway towards evidence-based, respectful maternity care worldwide. Lancet. 2016; (published online Sept 15.) http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31472-6.

Best wishes, Neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa.org

Postpartum haemorrhage (severe bleeding after childbirth, or PPH) is the leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in developing countries.  More than 30 percent of maternal deaths worldwide are attributable to PPH, accounting for approximately 130,000 deaths and 2.6 million disabled women every year.

Medical Aid Films, in partnership with the Division of Global Health and Human Rights at Massachusetts General Hospital, has produced a new film about how to stop bleeding from the uterus after birth using an award-winning, minimally invasive, and highly effective treatment, the Every Second Matters for Mothers and Babies- Uterine Balloon Tamponade (ESM-UBT).

Watch or download the film for free: How to use the uterine balloon tamponade http://www.medicalaidfilms.org/film/uterine-balloon-tamponade/

The ESM-UBT – a simple kit assembled from components readily available in developing countries – has been shown to rapidly halt blood loss in women suffering from uncontrolled PPH.  Introduced in eight countries including South Sudan, Kenya and Sierra Leone, it has resulted in a 96% survival rate among critically ill women.  As an ultra-low cost treatment (each kit costing less than $5), this provides a truly cost-effective way to save lives.

Your feedback is important to us.  If you use these films, please take five minutes to complete this short survey [https://www.tfaforms.com/438280?tfa_76=%20a0R58000002p8of&tfa_208=7015800000016zl], and films like these are dependent on your donations so please do support our work http://www.medicalaidfilms.org/give/

Many thanks,

Will Sanderson | Fundraising & Communications Coordinator | Medical Aid Films
16 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3ED, UK
07738223510
www.medicalaidflms.org

HIFA profile: Will Sanderson is Fundraising & Communications Coordinator at Medical Aid Films, London, UK. www.medicalaidflms.org  will AT medicalaidfilms.org

What is a promising high-impact practice in family planning for social and behavior change?

Engage and mobilize communities in group dialogue and action to promote healthy sexual relationships.

This brief describes the evidence on and experience with community group engagement (CGE) interventions that aim to foster healthy sexual and reproductive health (SRH) behaviors. The distinguishing characteristic of CGE interventions from other social and behavior change (SBC) interventions is that they work with and through community groups to influence individual behaviors and/or social norms rather than shifting behavior by targeting individuals alone. Specifically, community support can shift individual behaviors, including contraceptive behaviors, either by changing norms or individual knowledge and attitudes.

Download the brief here: https://www.fphighimpactpractices.org/resources/community-engagement

HIFA profile: Debra Dickson is POPLINE Manager at the Center for Communication Programs, United States. Email address: ddickson AT jhuccp.org

International Journal of Medical Informatics (IJMI)

Guest Editor: David Novillo-Ortiz, Ph.D., eHealth Coordinator, Pan American Health Organization (Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization)

Guest Co-editor: Francesc Saigí-Rubió, Ph.D., Telemedicine Program Director, Department of Health Science, Open University of Catalonia

More information: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/international-journal-of-medical-informatics/call-for-papers/call-for-papers-the-role-of-digital-health

Rationale:

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), available data show that, in spite of the major progress during the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) era, major challenges remain in terms of reducing maternal and child mortality, improving nutrition, and achieving further progress in the battle against infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected tropical diseases, and hepatitis. The situation analysis also provides evidence of the importance of addressing non-communicable diseases and their risk factors, such as tobacco use, mental health problems, road traffic injuries, and environmental health issues. Data on water and sanitation and air quality show that much more needs to be done to reduce risks to health. Weak health systems are a major obstacle in many countries, resulting in major deficiencies in universal health coverage for even the most basic health services and in inadequate preparedness for health emergencies. All these challenges are included under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”.

On the other hand, the spread and uptake of information and communications technologies (ICT) have the potential to level the playing field, by reducing some of these challenges and enabling information-sharing that will assist in equalizing these differences. Many ICT systems and devices, initially expensive and of limited dissemination, have become affordable and are widely used across many levels of society. Digital health technologies will play a significant role in achieving the SDGs.

Main theme:

We are soliciting manuscripts for inclusion in a special issue of Health Informatics titled, “The Role of Digital Health to Support the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).” We welcome conceptual or empirical manuscripts with a local, national or international focus on the topic of digital health technologies and the Sustainable Development Goal #3.

We are particularly interested in manuscripts that employ interdisciplinary, intersectional, and/or innovative approaches to the conceptualization and measurement of the use of digital health in the achievement of the SDG #3. It is envisioned that the collection of articles included in this special issue will provide robust support for future directions in the digital health research, advocacy, and policy related to the impact of the SDGs.

The special issue of the International Journal of Medical Informatics will provide a platform for countries to make an analysis of what can be done in the area of digital health since the approval of the SDGs.

Manuscript submission process:

Review will take place in two stages. First, we ask for extended abstracts of 900-1000 words, due December 19, 2016, that provide enough information about the conceptualization and measurement of digital health technologies and SDG #3 for review. We strongly encourage authors to mention: (1) the innovation in their approach to the study of digital health technologies and SDG #3; and (2) how this work will set the stage for future research, advocacy, and/or policy in this area. Authors whose abstracts fall within the scope of the special issue will be invited to submit a full manuscript, due March 31, 2017. Acceptance of abstract does not ensure manuscript acceptance, as all manuscripts will be subject to full editorial board and peer review.

Internal Timeline of activities:
·         Submit abstract: December 19, 2016
·         Internal review abstracts for scope: January 16th
·         Submit full manuscript: March 31, 2017

About International Journal of Medical Informatics – Journal Metrics:

Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP): 2.068
SCImago Journal Rank (SJR): 1.405
Impact Factor: 2.363
5-Year Impact Factor: 2.927
—

David Novillo Ortiz, MLIS, PhD

Advisor, Digital Health & Knowledge Management
Regional focal point for the WHO eHealth Program

Knowledge Management, Bioethics and Research Department

Pan American Health Organization

Tel. +1 202 974-3060 (Land line)
Tel. +1 202 812 4726 (Mobile line)
E-mail: novillod@paho.org

HIFA profile: David Novillo-Ortiz is an Advisor, Digital Health & Knowledge Management, and Regional focal point for the WHO eHealth Program with the Pan American Health Organization, USA. Email address: novillod AT paho.org

We have just launched the 9th language version of our offline medical apps. This version is in Odia a language in Eastern India spoken by around 40 million people. You can download it from Google play here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kiwix.kiwixcustomwikimedor

Launching this app was more complicated than most as the Google play store does not support the Odia language as an option. We had to thus label it as being in English even though it is not. Many of the articles within this collection are additionally the only content avaliable online in this language.

Many thanks to Dr. Subas Chandra Rout who single handedly translated nearly 500 articles to make this collection a possibility.

James

HIFA profile: James Heilman is a Wikipedian

Planning and implementation of palliative care services: a guide for programme managers
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/250584/1/9789241565417-eng.pdf?ua=1

Below are some extracts relating to information needs:

‘Patients and/or their caregivers also have information and communication needs, and often they will need help with the organization of care. It is important to determine the patient’s values and priorities as a prerequisite to formulating the best plan of care. Advance directives such as a living will or power of attorney may be useful instruments. However, in some situations, patients prefer that one or more family members receive medical information and make decisions about their care for them.’

‘The patient or surrogate(s) should be informed about available treatment options. Comprehensive information on the illness, the expected disease trajectory and treatment options should be delivered in an empathic way. This will reduce unknowns and hence reduce anxieties. The unknown may induce more anxiety than the reality.’

‘The media need to be involved in disseminating reliable information of educational value, while avoiding sensationalism.’

The guide refers to the World Health Assembly resolution WHA67.19 (2014):
“Strengthening of palliative care as a component of comprehensive care throughout the life course”
http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/WHA67/A67_R19-en.pdf

‘[…] 1. URGES Member States:5
1. to develop, strengthen and implement, where appropriate, palliative care policies to support the comprehensive strengthening of health systems to integrate evidence-based, cost-effective and equitable palliative care services in the continuum of care, across all levels, with emphasis on primary care, community and home-based care, and universal coverage schemes;
2. to ensure adequate domestic funding and allocation of human resources, as appropriate, for palliative care initiatives, including development and implementation of palliative care policies, education and training, and quality improvement initiatives, and supporting the availability and appropriate use of essential medicines, including controlled medicines for symptom management…’

Best wishes, Neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa.org

Health is Primary is a communications campaign to advocate for the values of family medicine, demonstrate the benefits of primary care, and engage patients in our health care system. Our aim is to build a primary care system that reflects the values of family medicine, puts patients at the center of their care, and improves the health of all Americans. Family Medicine for America’s Health launched the campaign to help strengthen the primary care infrastructure and make America healthier…..moremore

In June 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Cuba’s Ministry of Public Health signed an umbrella accord that promises to make health a cornerstone of the new era of cooperation between the two countries. The memorandum of understanding (MOU), signed by HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Minister Roberto Morales Ojeda, is the latest expression of goodwill since the December 2014 rapprochement that renewed diplomatic relations and reopened embassies in Washington and Havana. According to the HHS announcement, the MOU “establishes coordination across a broad spectrum of public health issues, including global health security, communicable and non-communicable diseases, research and development, and information technology.”1 Finally the door has been opened for bilateral collaboration aimed at preventing and controlling diseases that affect people in both countries — including infectious threats such as Zika as well as cancer and other chronic conditions that are the main causes of death in the United States and Cuba…..more

An introduction to the eHealth field featuring practical examples.

About this course: KIeHealthX will introduce students to the field of eHealth and its opportunities and challenges. During the course you will get to know the different concepts that are used in the field and learn how it developed historically. This basic knowledge will help you to understand the opportunities and challenges of the field. You will meet different stakeholders from various countries and get to know their views on the opportunities and challenges of eHealth. We will introduce you to eHealth strategies and frameworks for developing and analyzing them. You will get to know methods for eHealth service development and discuss basic requirements that are necessary to achieve sustainable eHealth applications for both clinical professionals and patients.

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