IPCHS

This growing repository holds WHO documents, scientific publications, policy documents, implementation reports, presentations and others with information and insights about integrated people-centred health services. Share your publication by clicking “Add publication”.

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Feb. 25, 2016 Global

Engaging and empowering people and communities, Reorienting the model of care, Coordinating services within and across sectors, Creating an enabling environment

WHO’s global survey on assistive technologies

WHO has launched a global survey to gather views on the most necessary and useful assistive technologies such as hearing aids and wheel chairs. The survey will feed into the first ever WHO mandated list of essential assistive technologies, similar to the WHO Essential Medicines List. These practical tools – some low, some higher technologies – are becoming increasingly necessary to the many people in high- and middle-income countries who are living longer due to better healthcare. Similar devices are used by people with disabilities, allowing them to live more autonomously and participate in their communities. This list will represent a tool ...

Feb. 15, 2016 Global

Engaging and empowering people and communities, Coordinating services within and across sectors

The Patient-Centered Health Record

Electronic Health Records (EHR) have become a core utility in health management in last decades. In this post, Peter Elias discusses how EHR can be changed in order to place people in the center of EHR.

According to Elias, patient-centered EHR would have the following main characteristics:

The basic unit would be one record per patient, and patient would have direct acces to his EHR.
Open source would be a core value in the development of patient-centered EHR.
Patient would have the control of his own EHR, being able to control who can see, change or use the information contained ...

Feb. 14, 2016 Europe

Engaging and empowering people and communities, Reorienting the model of care, Coordinating services within and across sectors

Personalised Integrated Care Programme

All too often older people living with long-term conditions do not have a sustainable care plan to keep them out of the hospital. Launched in Cornwall in 2013, Age UK’s Personalised Integrated Care programme uses risk stratification to both identify those older people who are at risk of recurring hospital admissions and provide a combination of medical and non-medical support. This support starts with a 'guided conversation' between the older person and an Age UK Personal Independence Co-ordinator. In this conversation they outline the goals that the older person identifies as most important to him or her and they ...

Feb. 12, 2016 Americas Europe Western Pacific

Engaging and empowering people and communities, Reorienting the model of care, Coordinating services within and across sectors

How High-Need Patients Experience the Health Care System in Nine Countries

In this study, high-need patients are defined as those aged 65 and older with at least three chronic conditions or a functional limitation in activities of daily living. The brief analyses data from the Commonwealth Fund 2014 International Health Policy Survey of Older Adults to investigate health care use, quality, and experiences among high-need patients in nine countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States) compared with other older adults. The study found that high-need adults use more health care – especially avoidable Emergency Department visits –, experience more cost-related barriers to care, and poorly coordinated ...

Feb. 10, 2016 Africa

Engaging and empowering people and communities, Strengthening governance and accountability

Action learning for health system governance: the reward and challenge of co-production

Health policy and systems research (HPSR) is centrally concerned with people, their relationships and the actions and practices they can implement towards better health systems. These concerns suggest that HPS researchers must work in direct engagement with the practitioners and practice central to the inquiry, acknowledging their tacit knowledge and drawing it into generating new insights into health system functioning. Social science perspectives are of particular importance in this field because health policies and health systems are themselves social and political constructs. However, how can social science methodologies such as action research and narrative and appreciative enquiry enable such research ...

Feb. 10, 2016 Africa

Engaging and empowering people and communities, Strengthening governance and accountability, Reorienting the model of care, Creating an enabling environment

Exploring perceptions of community health policy in Kenya and identifying implications for policy change

BACKGROUND:

Global interest and investment in close-to-community health services is increasing. Kenya is currently revising its community health strategy (CHS) alongside political devolution, which will result in revisioning of responsibility for local services. This article aims to explore drivers of policy change from key informant perspectives and to study perceptions of current community health services from community and sub-county levels, including perceptions of what is and what is not working well. It highlights implications for managing policy change.

METHODS:

We conducted 40 in-depth interviews and 10 focus group discussions with a range of participants to capture plural perspectives, including those ...

Feb. 10, 2016 Global

Engaging and empowering people and communities, Reorienting the model of care

Global Challenges in People-Centered E-Health

People-centered health care seeks an active role for the patient while empowering all other members of the health care team. By promoting greater patient responsibility and optimal usage, patient-centered health care leads to improved health outcomes, quality of life and optimal value for health care investment. This paper reviews some definitions of people-centered health care and various e-health approaches around the world used to implement this vision. The barriers and enablers to implementation this type of approach are explored. This paper provides a proposed research agenda for future implementations of people-centered e-health.

Feb. 10, 2016 South-East Asia

Engaging and empowering people and communities, Strengthening governance and accountability

Implementing people-centred health systems governance in 3 provinces and 11 districts of Afghanistan: a case study

BACKGROUND:

Previous studies show that health systems governance influences health system performance and health outcomes. However, there are few examples of how to implement and monitor good governing practices in fragile and conflict affected environments. Good governance has the potential to make the health system people-centered. More research is needed on implementing a people-centered governance approach in these environments.

CASE DESCRIPTION:

We piloted an intervention that placed a people-centred health systems governance approach in the hands of multi-stakeholder committees that govern provincial and district health systems. We report the results of this intervention from three provinces and eleven districts in ...

Feb. 10, 2016 South-East Asia

Engaging and empowering people and communities, Strengthening governance and accountability, Reorienting the model of care

Enhancing governance and health system accountability for people centered healthcare: an exploratory study of community scorecards in Afghanistan

BACKGROUND:

The premise of patient-centered care is to empower patients to become active participants in their own care and receive health services focused on their individual needs and preferences. Afghanistan has evidenced enormous gains in coverage and utilization, but the quality of care remains suboptimal, as evidenced in the balanced scorecard (BSC) performance assessments. In the United States and throughout Africa and Asia, community scorecards (CSC) have proved effective in improving accountability and responsiveness of services. This study represents the first attempt to assess CSC feasibility in a fragile context (Afghanistan) through joint engagement of service providers and community members ...

Feb. 10, 2016 Global

Engaging and empowering people and communities, Strengthening governance and accountability

Community Participation in Health Systems Research: A Systematic Review Assessing the State of Research, the Nature of Interventions Involved and the Features of Engagement with Communities

BACKGROUND:

Community participation is a major principle of people centered health systems, with considerable research highlighting its intrinsic value and strategic importance. Existing reviews largely focus on the effectiveness of community participation with less attention to how community participation is supported in health systems intervention research.

OBJECTIVE:

To explore the extent, nature and quality of community participation in health systems intervention research in low- and middle-income countries.

METHODOLOGY:

We searched for peer-reviewed, English language literature published between January 2000 and May 2012 through four electronic databases. Search terms combined the concepts of community, capability/participation, health systems research and low- ...