Human Resources for Health Blog
Very sadly the HRH editors inform that Mr. Peter Hornby passed away in Jakarta last 3 June, two days after suffering a severe stroke from which he did not recover.
Peter Hornby was in Indonesia to develop a cooperation project between two universities in the U.K. and Indonesia, a country where he has worked many years ago and that he loved.
All who had the privilege to work with Peter will remember him as a dedicated professional to the cause of improving Human Resource for Health Development but also a person with a lot of humour and wisdom.
On behalf of the HRH journal team we would like to express our condolences to his wife, family and friends.
May Peter rest in peace.
Posted by Mario Dal Poz at 20:40 Comments (0)
2010 International Conference on Research in Human Resources for Health
The WHO/PAHO Collaborating Centre for Health Workforce Information and Planning at the Social Medicine Institute, University of the State of Rio de Janeiro and the World Health Organization/PanAmerican Health Organization are promoting the 2010 International Conference on Research in Human Resources for Health. The International Conference will be held at Hotel Sheraton, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 9 to 11 June 2010, supported by national and international institutions, lead by Prof. Celia Pierantoni, member of HRH journal Editorial Board. Dr. Francisco Campos, Secretary of Human Resources for Health - SGTES of the Ministry of Health, Brazil will open the conference talking about the "Health Research in Brazil and the World. Although attendance is only by invitation, anyone interested can participate via internet as the conference will be broadcasted online in real time enabling broader participation. To access the Conference on real-time, you just need to click on the following link: http://webconf.telessaude.uerj.br/auditorio
Posted by Mario Dal Poz at 22:05 Comments (0)
Book on the physician assistant profession
A new book on the physician assistant profession is available. Roderick S. Hooker, PhD, PA, James F. Cawley, MPH, PA and David P. Asprey, PhD, PA. Physician Assistants: Policy and Practice, 3rd Ed published by F.A. Davis.
The book describes all aspects of the PA profession, now comprising more than 74 000 practitioners, and tackles a series of global health workforce policy issues including the utilization of PAs in primary care, rural practice, and in service to medically underserved communities.
It contains a chapter on the global spread of the PA concept and has a bibliography of over 950 citations. With forecasts of a coming shortage of physicians in the USA, PAs will be seen as increasingly valuable members of the health workforce of the future.
Posted by Daniel Shaw at 08:46 Comments (0)
Died in Paris Dr. Bui Dang Ha Doan, Director of the Center for Sociology and Medical Demography
Dr. Bui Dang Ha Doan, Director of the Center for Sociology and Medical Demography (CSDM), died in in Paris last 2 March 2010, from a rheumatic disease. Dr Bui was a pioneer and his work will continue to influence researchers focused on the issues of medical demography. Many today are those interested in the problems of medical demography, whether it be the shortage of doctors in certain geographical areas, or the selection of students to certain specialties ... For Bui, medical demography could not simply be limited to statistics: longitudinal analysis over a long period was more revealing of contradictions present in short-term decisions than of a longer-term perspective. His final analysis on the evolution of the numerus clausus is a perfect example: "we can glean some astounding contradictions, from which all rationality seems absent." The last symposium he organized and which he could unfortunately not attend was held under the auspices of WHO and the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, in Neuchâtel. The theme was "Performance of the human potential of a national health system." It was attended by more than 60 participants from 23 countries. We are thankful, and are all the richer, for having known Dr Bui, and having learnt and benefited from his work, which he approached with such passion. All at the HRH Journal express their sincere condolences to the family of Dr Bui, his colleagues at the CSDM and wish them strength at this time of great loss.
Posted by Mario Dal Poz at 02:07 Comments (0)
New publication! : Handbook on monitoring and evaluation of human resources for health
We are pleased to announce the publication of the "Handbook on monitoring and evaluation of human resources for health, with special applications in low- and middle-income countries".
This Handbook offers health managers, researchers and policy makers a comprehensive and standard reference for monitoring and evaluating human resources for health. It brings together an analytical framework with strategy options for improving the health workforce information and evidence base, as well as country experiences to highlight approaches that have worked. A joint publication of the World Health Organization, World Bank and United States Agency for International Development, it is available in English, French and Spanish. (A Portuguese version is also forthcoming).
[Read More]Posted by Daniel Shaw at 10:52 Comments (0)
Authors are invited to submit articles as a contribution to a special WHO Bulletin theme issue that will explore the challenges of health worker retention in remote and rural areas. Papers should aim at filling the gaps in the current knowledge on costs of implementing rural retention strategies and incentive schemes, and the extent to which context influences the design, implementation and the impact of various strategies. Innovative methodological papers that examine the monitoring and impact evaluation of various strategies are also encouraged, in particular with a view to understanding the long-term effects and sustainability of retention strategies.
Manuscripts on any of the above topics should be submitted to: http://submit.bwho.org by 1 October 2009.". The special issue will be published in Spring 2010.
A copy of the editorial call for papers can be found at: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/87/7/09-068494/en/index.html .
For more information please contact: hrhinfo@who.int.
Posted by Mario Dal Poz at 22:31 Comments (0)
Global Health Leadership Forum 2010-2011
An innovative program for senior health executives focusing on health policy and management issues of global importance. The program takes place in two intensive sessions in Berkeley and Barcelona. Participants will develop a work-related project mentored by expert faculty advisors during the interim between sessions.
Barcelona Session
July 18-23, 2010
Barcelona GSE and CRES
Barcelona, Catalonia – SPAIN
Berkeley Session
April 9-13, 2011 with optional extended Study Tour at Kaiser Permanente through April 15.
UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Berkeley, CALIFORNIA
The seventh edition of the Global Health Leadership Forum is a joint initiative of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health and the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics together with the UPF Center for Research in Health and Economics (CRES).
Applications: http://ghlf.berkeley.edu/
Meg A. Kellogg
Program Director
Global Health Leadership Forum
University of California, Berkeley
phone: (510) 642-8628
fax: (510) 642-7658
Website: http://ghlf.berkeley.edu
Posted by Mario Dal Poz at 00:02 Comments (0)
Measuring health workforce inequalities: methods and applications - Call for papers
The World Health Organization's Department of Human Resources for Health (WHO/HRH), in collaboration with the International Statistical Institute (ISI), solicits high-quality submissions of original statistical research results and/or experience focusing on the topic of "Measuring health workforce inequalities: methods and applications". Selected papers are to be presented at a Special Topic Meeting of the 57th Session of the ISI which will be held in Durban, South Africa in August 2009.
The goal of the Special Topic Meeting is to promote statistical discourse on measuring health workforce inequalities and the implications for policy and planning. Submissions should focus on methodological developments and applications for measuring health workforce inequalities, with special attention to monitoring trends (over time and/or areas) and evaluating their impacts on health systems performance and population health outcomes. Papers may be written in either of the working languages of the conference, i.e. English or French.
The WHO Department of Human Resources for Health will consider covering the costs of up to four researchers to present their papers at the Special Topic Meeting. Priority will be given to researchers from low and middle income countries who do not receive financial support from an international
source.
The deadline for submission of abstract is 13 April 2009. Full papers must be submitted by 15 May 2009 according to the format prescribed.
For more details, please visit:
http://www.who.int/hrh/events/2009/inequalities/en/index.html
Posted by Mario Dal Poz at 22:50 Comments (0)
Is There A Doctor In The House? a new book from Richard M. Scheffler
In Is There A Doctor In The House? Richard M. Scheffler, one of our Editorial Board members, upends conventional thinking, as he shows how the United States is not suffering from a shortage of doctors—rather, we are seeing the results of decades of misguided public policies. These policies have created a health care marketplace that often fails to deliver the right number of doctors, of the right specialty, in the right locations. Health care reform, Scheffler argues, is not just a matter of training more doctors. What this country needs is a reform of health care policy, which will spur the development of an efficient, cost-effective, and high-quality health care system.
Using his economist’s perspective to define what it means to find “the right number of doctors,” Scheffler places questions about the supply and demand of doctors in the framework of the market—showing how shifts in market power underlie workforce changes.
[Read More]Posted by Mario Dal Poz at 12:43 Comments (1)
Leadership and management in public health: latest article in six-part feature series
Ummuro Adano's article the Kenyan emergency hiring programme is the 4th article in the 6-article special feature to be published.
As a reminder to readers, the original editorial which launched the feature series in June is copied below.
The final two articles in the feature should be published in by the beginning of October
*****************************************************************
The journal of Human Resources for Health is proud to be launching a first quarterly feature in collaboration with Management Sciences for Health (MSH) under the theme of public health leadership and management. The journal has invited Dr Manuel M. Dayrit, Director of the WHO Department of Human Resources for Health and former Minister of Health for the Philippines to launch the feature with this opening editorial.
"Good leadership and management at all levels is crucial in successfully confronting public health challenges in the increasingly complex global arena. Simply put, we can think of leadership as 'setting a vision,' and management as 'getting things done'. In reality, however, the two are often overlapping and we think of them as coming together. As a result, the two terms are often conflated within the relevant literature [1].
At the First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, recently convened in Kampala, one of the concluding messages for tackling the global health workforce crisis was a call for united and committed decision makers leading health systems with strengthened management at all levels. In this context, we must consider managers as part of the health workforce, whether medically trained or not. What health workforce managers do need to understand, however, is how health systems work, particularly in relation to their respective functional domains.
The articles constituting this feature on leadership highlight the need for professional leaders and managers, at all levels of the health system, who are prepared to address critical gaps in human resources for health.
This series was proposed and coordinated as a joint submission by Mary O'Neil of Management Sciences for Health (MSH), who is also a member of the editorial board of this journal. Together these manuscripts advocate MSH's tried and tested approach in the area of leadership and management, showcasing new tools and strategies and introducing us to country-level health leaders who from testing situations have produced great successes. Taking the form of lighter, commentary style articles, they can be considered more as 'reports from the field' than as formal research or review articles.
The opening article describes the human resource challenges that managers around the world report and analyses why solutions often fail to be implemented.
In the second article, the experience of the Family Life Education Programme, an NGO in Uganda, in improving retention and performance by using the MSH Human Resource Management Rapid Assessment Tool is highlighted.
The third article presents a successful application in Mozambique of a leadership development program created by Management Sciences for Health (MSH). Through this program, managers from 40 countries have learned to work in teams to identify their priority challenges and act to implement effective responses.
The fourth article describes an emergency hiring program that rapidly recruited and deployed workers to deliver HIV and AIDS services in Kenya.
The penultimate article profiles three successful examples of public health leadership in Afghanistan, South Africa and Sudan and, finally, in the sixth and final article, we are presented with an experience of virtual leadership development for Human Resource Managers.
As a whole, the quarterly feature on health leadership and management illustrates: 1) the reality of organizational management and leadership in health; 2) the significance of inter-personal relationships and teamwork in the successful functioning of a health programme; 3) that day-to-day health leadership often consists of dealing with obstacles in very practical terms; 4) that when profiled, health leaders do exhibit some common traits and yet also differ in ways appropriate to the context and needs faced; 5) technology will play an increasingly important role in managing the solutions to the health workforce crisis and beyond."
- Manuel M. Dayrit
The six articles making up this first quarterly feature will be published individually at regular intervals over the coming weeks.
We hope this and our subsequent special features will inspire discussions on the topics covered. Any reader who wishes to respond to an article, or on the issue at hand in general, may contribute to the discussion by using the 'post a comment' feature on the journal website.
We would be particularly interested to see other examples from countries as described in the examples from the quarterly feature. Posted comments will be reviewed by the editorial team of 'Human Resources for Health' and then displayed both on the site and on the journal's blog. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and to participating in the electronic discussion.
The articles constituting the quarterly feature on leadership and management in public health were reviewed by Alexander Goubarev and Norbert Dreesch (WHO) and edited with the assistance of Laura Stormont.
1. Dayrit M D, Ambegaokar, M: Leadership in Public Health. In Oxford Textbook on Public Health. OUP; (Forthcoming).
Posted by Daniel Shaw at 17:58 Comments (1)
AuthorAID: supporting developing country researchers in publishing their work
AuthorAID provides researchers in more than 50 countries with:
- a community space for discussion and questions where researchers can obtain advice
- access to documents and presentations on best practice in writing and publication
- world-wide training workshops on scientific writing
- a chance to network with other researchers
- personal mentoring by highly published researchers and professional editors
Find out more about the benefits of joining the AuthorAID community, or register now.
Posted by Daniel Shaw at 15:39 Comments (0)
Human Resources for Health is very happy to announce that Open Medicine has published its contribution to the International Joint Issue on scaling up education and training of health workers.
The editorial is available on-line (free open access) at the Open Medicine website: http://www.openmedicine.ca/article/view/248/145.
The International Joint Issue is led by the HRH Journal and comprises the collaboration of over 20 top medical journals, who will each contribute in their own unique way over the coming 12 months on the theme of scaling up training and education of health workers. The Human Resources for Health Journal would like to thank the AJPH Editor-in-Chief, Claire Kendall and all at Open Medicine for their dedicated work in bringing this fantastic contribution to fruition.
Posted by Daniel Shaw at 13:23 Comments (0)
Human Resources for Health is very happy to announce that the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) has published its latest issue as part of the International Joint Issue on scaling up education and training of health workers.
The issue, published in English, is available as a paper copy or on-line (free open access) at the AJPH's website: http://www.ajph.org/content/vol98/issue9/.
The following is the cover note from the September 2008 issue:
"With this issue of the Journal, the editors, board members, and staff join with the WHO and the journal Human Resources for Health in supporting the broad theme, "Toward a scaling-up of training and education for health workers."
In doing so, we are part of an international collection of journals and agencies that is advocating for a skilled, sustainable health workforce in the developing world, abetted by innovative programs in schools of public health throughout the world.
Associate Editor Stella Yu inspired us to publish this particular issue devoted to Schools of Public Health after a visit to China (see her Editor's Choice column on p. 1546 of this issue).
On the cover, the only hospital in Greensburg, Kansas, was destroyed after an EF5 tornado devastated 95% of the community on May 4, 2007. Winds in excess of 200 miles per hour left a path of destruction 1.75 miles wide when it struck just after nightfall.
According to Stella Yu, "The schools of public health can take a substantive leadership role not only in the relief of disasters but also in the short- and long-term rehabilitation of the victims and their families."
The International Joint Issue is led by the HRH Journal and comprises the collaboration of over 20 top medical journals, who will each contribute in their own unique way over the coming 12 months on the theme of scaling up training and education of health workers.
The Human Resources for Health Journal would like to thank the AJPH Editor-in-Chief, Dr Mary Northridge, Dr Stella Yu and all at the AJPH for all their dedicated work in bringing this wonderful issue to fruition.
Posted by Daniel Shaw at 09:26 Comments (0)
Human Resources for Health is very happy to announce that the journal "Education for Health" has published its latest issue as part of the International Joint Issue on scaling up education and training of health workers.
The issue, actually their 20th Anniversary Edition, is available on-line (free open access) at the Education for Health's website: http://educationforhealth.net/articles/defaultnew.asp.
The Human Resources for Health Journal would like to thank Michael Glasser, Margaret Gadon and all at Education for Health for their collaboration on this issue.
The International Joint Issue is led by the HRH Journal and comprises the collaboration of over 20 top medical journals, who will each contribute in their own unique way - from June 2008 to June 2009 - on the theme of scaling up training and education of health workers.
Posted by Daniel Shaw at 14:22 Comments (0)
Human Resources for Health is very happy to announce that the Croatian Medical Journal (CMJ) has published its latest issue as part of the International Joint Issue on scaling up education and training of health workers.
The issue, published in English and titled "Scaling up of Training and Education for Health Workers", is available as a paper copy or on-line (free open access) at the CMJ's website: www.cmj.hr
[Read More]Posted by Daniel Shaw at 10:40 Comments (0)