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This paper reviews and provides an understanding of the private health sector’s role in low- and middle-income countries and its relationship with the governmental capacity to regulate private providers, in particular, and to act as health system steward, in general. [from abstract]

The paper describes performance-based incentive contracting schemes that have been implemented to improve results for a range of interventions from time-limited immunizations to chronic conditions that require significant lifestyle changes, such as diabetes. It argues that performance incentives are a viable and potentially more powerful solution than typical inputoriented approaches to dealing with underutilization, poor quality, and low efficiency. [from publisher]

The paper reviews various purchasing models and the advantages each offers for purchasing from the private sector. It then identifies the key challenges to successful implementation of these models, and discusses improvements needed in the contracting mechanism itself. It determines that the purchasing mechanism can create new incentives for providers, payers, and consumers on a national scale, but it may require that changes be made in the health sector as a whole for new programs to be successful. [from publisher]

The objective of this study was to identify and characterize contracting models that have existed in the Zambian health sector and their consequences on access to health care. The study was aimed at assessing the extent to which the identified contracting models have been successful in achieving their intended goals and at determining their potential to be scaled up to the entire health sector, including the private sector. [from summary]

By analysing health programmes in low- and middle-income countries that engage the private sector, this paper fills gaps in the e-health literature and provides new insight into several central questions. It examines the geographic distribution of technology-enabled programmes, the key issues technology can address in the health sector, and the key challenges posed by the adoption and implementation of technology for health-related purposes. [from author]

The objective of the study defined in this report was to evolve a community-based model of monitoring absenteeism in public health centres that can induce demand accountability of service providers, along with measuring the rate of their absenteeism and the satisfaction of the beneficiaries, and to do evidence-based advocacy for adopting the model and improving the service delivery. [from abstract]

This 8 minute video highlights one solution to the problem of doctor absenteeism being deployed in the Karnataka region in southern India. When patients arrive at a primary health clinic and the doctor is absent, they can use their phones to text a central location which will record this data to allow the government to track and citizens to see which clinics are chronically understaffed. [from publisher]

The objective of this study is to characterize physician perceptions of pharmacists and their roles in a primary care patient setting in Qatar. [from abstract]

This article presents the finding of a study to assess the feasibility, acceptabilty and effectiveness of short online courses for mental health professionals and service users. [adapted from author]

This document provides guidance on the defining features of health policy and systems research (HPSR), particularly in low- and middle-income countries, and the critical steps in conducting research in this field. It showcases the diverse range of research strategies and methods encompassed by HPSR, and it provides examples of good quality and innovative HPSR papers. [adapted from author]

This study sought to understand what the field of mHealth had to offer, to explore how mHealth is implemented in practice and to use these two sources of information to reflect on the lessons and implications for implementing mHealth at scale for monitoring and evaluation of community based services and community health workers. [adapted from summary]

Many countries are facing an ageing of the nursing workforce and increasing workforce shortages. This article reports findings from a qualitative study of 15 participants who explored perceived opportunities for and barriers to implementing flexible strategies to engage older nurses in the workforce after they resign from full-time work. [adapted from abstract}

Medical student education is perceived as utilising significant amounts of preceptors’ time, negatively impacting on clinical productivity. This study triangulated practice financial data with the perspectives of clinical supervisors before and after regional/rural longitudinal integrated community-based placements of medical students to determine at what point students become financially beneficial to a practice. [adapted from abstract]

Studies have suggested that a rapid increase in physicians does not necessarily change an urban–rural inequity in their distribution. This study applied spatial competition and attraction–repulsion hypotheses to the geographic distribution of physicians during a time of insufficient physician supply in Japan to determine whether an insufficient supply of physicians worsens an inequity. [adapted from abstract]

This article identifies trends in the evolving practice of rural paramedics and describes key characteristics, roles and expected outcomes for a rural expanded scope of practice model. The study found that paramedics are increasingly becoming first line primary healthcare providers in small rural communities and developing additional professional responsibilities throughout the cycle of care. [from abstract]

This brief outlines the concepts of flexible working practices, which are being promoted by governments, employers and unions as an important element of efforts to recruit and retain skilled employees and to improve the deployment of available nursing skills. [adapted from author]

This short presentation introduces innovations along the health worker education pipeline, transformative scale up of health professional education, and the definitions and processes of producing health worker education guidelines and recommendations. [adapted from author]

This technical brief looks at the cost of absenteeism, examines governance issues, describes the various stakeholders, and offers a number of recommendations for strengthening governance to reduce absenteeism. [from publisher]

This book presents the principal findings of a study on contractual arrangements between faith-based hospitals and public health authorities in four sub-Saharan African countries.

This edition of Hotline, an HRH newletter focused on the needs of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in Africa, highlights resources, trainings and workshops, articles of interest and other information for FBO HRH pracitioners.

Lebanon is witnessing an increased emigration of physicians. The objective of this study was to understand the perceptions of Lebanese policymakers of this emigration, and elicit their proposals for future policies and strategies to deal with this emigration. [from abstract]

Increasingly, hospitals rely on nurses to fill the primary care gap and meet the many new health care imperatives. This article discusses the challenges and opportunities this creates for the nursing profession. [adapted from author]

This paper presents a case study of a multi-component school health promotion intervention in India that was delivered by lay school health counsellors, who possessed neither formal educational nor health provider qualifications. [from abstract]

This study aimed to investigate the association between cancer surgical outcomes and physician/nurse staffing in relation to hospital volume. [from abstract]

This article describes a methodology developed to establish tuberculosis (TB) related work load in a given context and for a given patient load for use by TB program managers and health planners. The authors piloted this methodology in Tanzania in three districts; one rural, one urban and one semi-urban district as the countrycurrently faces a health workforce shortage of 65% in the public sector and 86% in the private sector, with unequal distribution between urban and rural areas. [adapted from author]

This survey tests the use of employee engagement concepts in United States Agency for International Development-assisted countries to measure and improve health worker performance, productivity, and retention. [adapted from author]

Virtual worlds are increasingly being explored as a support for education. The aim of this work was to study the suitability of Second Life as an educational tool for primary healthcare professionals. [from abstract]

The government of Pakistan identified 4 medical colleges for the introduction of a new medical curriculum, but despite concerted efforts, it was not implemented. The purpose of this research was to identify the barriers and reasons for delay in implementation of the curriculum and to assess the understanding of the stakeholders. [adapted from abstract]

This report is the World Health Organization’s annual compilation of health-related data for its 194 Member States1 and includes a summary of the progress made towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals and associated targets. This year, it also includes highlight summaries on the topics of noncommunicable diseases, universal health coverage and civil registration coverage. [from introduction]

This overview outlines how the growing trend in online learning can open up new perspectives and opportunities for Africa’s health professionals. [adapted from author]