CliffsNotes on private sector sessions at the Health Systems Symposium in…
By Center for Health Market InnovationsIn the shadow of the gleaming steel Beijing National Stadium—the famous “bird’s nest” built by starchitects Herzog & de Meuron for the 2008 Olympic Games— 1,775 participants from over 110 countries gathered to hear the latest on Health Systems Research, a new field designed to provide evidence for policy decision making.A formerly “orphaned” subject, the field has gained momentum since the WHO convened the First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Montreux.Conference participants looked out at this famous steel stadiumOver the conference’s four days there were nearly 200 program events including keynotes, plenaries, concurrent sessions, satellites, posters, films and informal discussions and debates.If you couldn’t make it—or were not able to attend the various private sector-related sessions—here are my CliffsNotes.New findings about health marketplaces in low- and middle-income countries“An effective health system can create order between command and control, and chaos,” said Gerry Bloom to an above-capacity room of students and researchers interested in Complex Adaptive Systems, an admittedly “abstract” theory about health planning amidst tremendous development, urbanization, and change in emerging economies.Dr. Bloom said policy makers have an imperative to understand health markets, including the “blurring” between the public and private sectors.Or as David Bishai put it, in a somewhat-unrelated homily on John Snow, “the unseen forces in the world may be much more powerful than the visible.”Several speakers mentioned the importance of understanding the dynamics of formal and informal health markets, and traditional vs. nontraditional approaches to healthcare delivery. Society participants surveyed also voted for more research on topics including “the balance of sectors, including informal, private, and public.”Only with a deep understanding of these dynamics including an understanding of the various influences exerted by public, private, and informal providers can policy makers “take off the blinders” (as one World Bank researcher put it) and enact successful strategies to strengthen the entire health system.Among the findings presented on health markets: Informal providers in Bangladesh, India, and Nigeria are highly respected members of their community, with higher levels of education than the community average, and some sort of training under their belts. Yet, according to a panel organized by CHMI and moderated by Results for Development’s Gina Lagomarsino, their level of organization and connections to the formal health sector varies from country to country
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CliffsNotes on private sector sessions at the Health Systems Symposium in…
Posted by Center for Health Market Innovations
on Nov 13 2012. Filed under Financing, Policy & Systems.
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