plueme/wizJson huggingface dataset:
location: nan, 'Global 
year: 2021 source: BMC 
title: Community health workers at the dawn of a new era: 8. Incentives and remuneration 
abstract:BackgroundThis is the eighth in our series of 11 papers on “CHWs at the Dawn of a New Era”. Community health worker (CHW) incentives and remuneration are core issues that affect the performance of individual CHWs and the performance of the overall CHW programme. A better understanding of what motivates CHWs and a stronger awareness of the social justice dimensions of remuneration are essential in order to build stronger CHW programmes and to support the professionalization of the CHW workforce.MethodsWe provide examples of incentives that have been provided to CHWs and identify factors that motivate and demotivate CHWs. We developed our findings in this paper by synthesizing the findings of a recent review of CHW motivation and incentives in a wide variety of CHW programmes with detailed case study data about CHW compensation and incentives in 29 national CHW programmes.ResultsIncentives can be direct or indirect, and they can be complementary/demand-side incentives. Direct incentives can be financial or nonfinancial. Indirect incentives can be available through the health system or from the community, as can complementary, demand-side incentives. Motivation is sustained when CHWs feel they are a valued member of the health system and have a clear role and set of responsibilities within it. A sense of the “do-ability” of the CHW role is critical in maintaining CHW motivation. CHWs are best motivated by work that provides opportunities for personal growth and professional development, irrespective of the direct remuneration and technical skills obtained. Working and social relationships among CHWs themselves and between CHWs and other healthcare professionals and community members strongly shape CHW motivation.ConclusionOur findings support the recent guidelines for CHWs released by WHO in 2018 that call for CHWs to receive a financial package that corresponds to their job demands, complexity, number of hours worked, training, and the roles they undertake. The guidelines also call for written agreements that specify the CHW’s role and responsibilities, working conditions, remuneration, and workers’ rights.
location: nan, 'Global 
year: 2021 source: BMC 
title: Community health workers at the dawn of a new era: 2. Planning, coordination, and partnerships 
abstract:BackgroundCommunity health workers (CHWs) play a critical role in grassroots healthcare and are essential for achieving the health-related Sustainable Development Goals. While there is a critical shortage of essential health workers in low- and middle-income countries, WHO and international partners have reached a consensus on the need to expand and strengthen CHW programmes as a key element in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The COVID-19 pandemic has further revealed that emerging health challenges require quick local responses such as those utilizing CHWs. This is the second paper of our 11-paper supplement, “Community health workers at the dawn of a new era”. Our objective here is to highlight questions, challenges, and strategies for stakeholders to consider while planning the introduction, expansion, or strengthening of a large-scale CHW programme and the complex array of coordination and partnerships that need to be considered.MethodsThe authors draw on the outcomes of discussions during key consultations with various government leaders and experts from across policy, implementation, research, and development organizations in which the authors have engaged in the past decade. These include global consultations on CHWs and global forums on human resources for health (HRH) conferences between 2010 and 2014 (Montreux, Bangkok, Recife, Washington DC). They also build on the authors’ direct involvement with the Global Health Workforce Alliance.ResultsWeak health systems, poor planning, lack of coordination, and failed partnerships have produced lacklustre CHW programmes in countries. This paper highlights the three issues that are generally agreed as being critical to the long-term effectiveness of national CHW programmes—planning, coordination, and partnerships. Mechanisms are available in many countries such as the UHC2030 (formerly International Health Partnership), country coordinating mechanisms (CCMs), and those focusing on the health workforce such as the national Human Resources for Health Observatory and the Country Coordination and Facilitation (CCF) initiatives introduced by the Global Health Workforce Alliance.ConclusionIt is imperative to integrate CHW initiatives into formal health systems. Multidimensional interventions and multisectoral partnerships are required to holistically address the challenges at national and local levels, thereby ensuring synergy among the actions of partners and stakeholders. In order to establish robust and institutionalized processes, coordination is required to provide a workable platform and conducive environment, engaging all partners and stakeholders to yield tangible results.
location: nan, 'Global 
year: 2021 source: BMC 
title: What do end-users want to know about managing the performance of healthcare delivery systems? Co-designing a context-specific and practice-relevant research agenda 
abstract:BackgroundDespite increasing interest in joint research priority-setting, few studies engage end-user groups in setting research priorities at the intersection of the healthcare and management disciplines. With health systems increasingly establishing performance management programmes to account for and incentivize performance, it is important to conduct research that is actionable by the end-users involved with or impacted by these programmes. The aim of this study was to co-design a research agenda on healthcare performance management with and for end-users in a specific jurisdictional and policy context.MethodsWe undertook a rapid review of the literature on healthcare performance management (n = 115) and conducted end-user interviews (n = 156) that included a quantitative ranking exercise to prioritize five directions for future research. The quantitative rankings were analysed using four methods: mean, median, frequency ranked first or second, and frequency ranked fifth. The interview transcripts were coded inductively and analysed thematically to identify common patterns across participant responses.ResultsSeventy-three individual and group interviews were conducted with 156 end-users representing diverse end-user groups, including administrators, clinicians and patients, among others. End-user groups prioritized different research directions based on their experiences and information needs. Despite this variation, the research direction on motivating performance improvement had the highest overall mean ranking and was most often ranked first or second and least often ranked fifth. The research direction was modified based on end-user feedback to include an explicit behaviour change lens and stronger consideration for the influence of context.ConclusionsJoint research priority-setting resulted in a practice-driven research agenda capable of generating results to inform policy and management practice in healthcare as well as contribute to the literature. The results suggest that end-users are keen to open the “black box” of performance management to explore more nuanced questions beyond “does performance management work?” End-users want to know how, when and why performance management contributes to behaviour change (or fails to) among front-line care providers.
location: nan, 'Global 
year: 2021 source: BMC 
title: Conducting decolonizing research and practice with Australian First Nations to close the health gap 
abstract:The purpose of this paper is to highlight a perspective for decolonizing research with Australian First Nations and provide a framework for successful and sustained knowledge translation by drawing on the recent work conducted by a research group, in five remote communities in North-Western Australia. The perspective is discussed in light of national and international calls for meaningful and dedicated engagement with First Nations people in research, policy and practice, to help close the health gap between First Nations and other Australians.
location: nan, 'Global 
year: 2021 source: BMC 
title: Collaboration on evidence synthesis in Africa: a network study of growing research capacity 
abstract:BackgroundEvidence-based practice in medicine and social policy relies heavily on evidence synthesis. To translate evidence into practical guidelines for low- and middle-income countries, local expertise is essential. The objectives of this study are to assess the change in capacity for conducting evidence synthesis in Africa and to identify key African institutions for regional capacity-building. We take on a network perspective, considering that the position of an institution in the African evidence ecosystem is one constituent of its research capacity.MethodsWe systematically identified 3548 evidence synthesis publications between 2008 and 2019 with at least one author in Africa from the Web of Science Core Collection. These articles involved 3769 institutions. Longitudinal institution-level collaboration network data were constructed based on co-authorship information. We used social network analysis to examine the institutions’ connectivity and tendency for intra- and interregional collaboration. We also identified the degree- and betweenness-central African institutions and explored the structure and composition of their local network neighbourhoods.ResultsThe number of African institutions involved in evidence synthesis has increased substantially over the last decade, from 31 in 2008 to 521 in 2019, and so has the number of evidence synthesis publications with authors in Africa. African institutions in the evidence ecosystem have also become more connected during this period. Although the amount of intercontinental collaboration continues to exceed that of regional collaboration, the tendency for African institutions to collaborate with partners in Africa is increasing. We identified seven institutions—in South Africa, Egypt and Uganda—as central to the collaboration networks between 2008 and 2019, all of whom showed a tendency to collaborate across sectors.ConclusionThe development of more regionally based network-building initiatives would help to foster communities of practice and inter-institutional collaboration, strengthening regional research capacity. Moreover, the analysis in this study adds depth beyond a simple bibliometric analysis and illustrates that network analysis could provide a useful tool to evaluate the effectiveness of capacity-building strategies and programmes in the future.
location: nan, 'Global 
year: 2021 source: BMC 
title: Support mechanisms for research generation and application for postgraduate students in four universities in Uganda 
abstract:BackgroundA large proportion of postgraduate students the world over complete a research thesis in partial fulfilment of their degree requirements. This study identified and evaluated support mechanisms for research generation and utilization for masters’ students in health institutions of higher learning in Uganda.MethodsThis was a self-administered cross-sectional survey using a modified self-assessment tool for research institutes (m-SATORI). Postgraduate students were randomly selected from four medical or public health Ugandan universities at Makerere, Mbarara, Nkozi and Mukono and asked to circle the most appropriate response on a Likert scale from 1, where the “situation was unfavourable and/or there was a need for an intervention”, to 5, where the “situation was good or needed no intervention”. These questions were asked under four domains: the research question; knowledge production, knowledge transfer and promoting use of evidence. Mean scores of individual questions and aggregate means under the four domains were computed and then compared to identify areas of strengths and gaps that required action.ResultsMost of the respondents returned their questionnaires, 185 of 258 (71.7%), and only 79 of these (42.7%) had their theses submitted for examination. The majority of the respondents were male (57.3%), married or cohabiting (58.4%), and were medical doctors (71.9%) from Makerere University (50.3%). The domain proposal development for postgraduate research project had the highest mean score of 3.53 out of the maximum 5. Three of the four domains scored below the mid-level domain score of 3, that is, the situation is neither favourable nor unfavourable. Areas requiring substantial improvements included priority-setting during research question identification, which had the lowest mean score of 2.12. This was followed by promoting use of postgraduate research products, tying at mean scores of 2.28 each. The domain knowledge transfer of postgraduate research products had an above-average mean score of 2.75.ConclusionsThis study reports that existing research support mechanisms for postgraduate students in Uganda encourage access to supervisors and mentors during proposal development. Postgraduate students’ engagement with research users was limited in priority-setting and knowledge transfer. Since supervisors and mentors views were not captured, future follow-on research could tackle this aspect.
location: nan, 'Global 
year: 2021 source: BMC 
title: Inclusive planning: African policy inventory and South African mobility case study on the exclusion of persons with disabilities 
abstract:BackgroundThe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and universal design (UD) principles call for inclusive planning. Within the transportation field, this includes the development or improvement of facilities that accommodate people with disabilities. Between 10% and 20% of the African population is affected by disabilities. A lack of understanding of the needs of people with disabilities leads to isolation. Within the transportation field, isolation manifests itself as a reduction in trip-making.MethodsThis paper investigates the availability of transport policies and guidelines in 29 different African countries, focusing on the inclusion of persons with disabilities. A desktop study was conducted creating heat maps for 29 African countries, followed by the analysis of secondary data in the case study area, South Africa, demonstrating that the lack of adequate policies, guidelines, and appropriate implementation leads to a lack of accessibility, opportunities, and social isolation, measured through trip frequencies.ResultsThe data analysed revealed that many African countries omit, or only superficially include, people with disabilities in their transport policy framework. Ghana has the most inclusive People with Disabilities Act, while South Africa is most inclusive regarding their planning and design of transport facilities and services. In South Africa, 4.5% of the population did not travel at all in the 7 days before the interview, as disability or age prevented them from doing so, or due to a lack of appropriate travel services. When comparing the trip rates per week, people with disabilities travel significantly less, between 27.2% and 65.8%, than their abled counterparts.ConclusionsThe study reveals that people with disability live less integrated, more isolated lives due to the lack of acknowledgement in the transport policy framework and accommodation in infrastructure and services. The results underpin the need for disability-inclusive planning in the African context and provide recommendations for actions that mitigate the isolation challenges faced by people with disabilities. Municipalities play a crucial role in improving the quality of life for people with disabilities.
location: nan, 'Global 
year: 2021 source: BMC 
title: Development, characteristics and impact of quality improvement casebooks: a scoping review 
abstract:BackgroundQuality improvement (QI) casebooks, compilations of QI experiences, are one way to share experiential knowledge that healthcare policy-makers, managers and professionals can adapt to their own contexts. However, QI casebook use, characteristics and impact are unknown. We aimed to synthesize published research on QI prevalence, development, characteristics and impact.MethodsWe conducted a scoping review by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and SCOPUS from inception to 4 February 2021. We extracted data on study characteristics and casebook definitions, development, characteristics (based on the WIDER [Workgroup for Intervention Development and Evaluation Research] framework) and impact. We reported findings using summary statistics, text and tables.ResultsWe screened 2999 unique items and included five articles published in Canada from 2011 to 2020 describing three studies. Casebooks focused on promoting positive weight-related conversations with children and parents, coordinating primary care-specialist cancer management, and showcasing QI strategies for cancer management. All defined casebooks similarly described real-world experiences of developing and implementing QI strategies that others could learn from, emulate or adapt. In all studies, casebook development was a multistep, iterative, interdisciplinary process that engages stakeholders in identifying, creating and reviewing content. While casebooks differed in QI topic, level of application and scope, cases featured common elements: setting or context, QI strategy details, impacts achieved, and additional tips for implementing strategies. Cases were described with a blend of text, graphics and tools. One study evaluated casebook impact, and found that it enhanced self-efficacy and use of techniques to improve clinical care. Although details about casebook development and characteristics were sparse, we created a template of casebook characteristics, which others can use as the basis for developing or evaluating casebooks.ConclusionFuture research is needed to optimize methods for developing casebooks and to evaluate their impact. One approach is to assess how the many QI casebooks available online were developed. Casebooks should be evaluated alone or in combination with other interventions that support QI on a range of outcomes.
location: nan, 'Global 
year: 2021 source: BMC 
title: COVID-19: protocol for observational studies utilizing near real-time electronic Australian general practice data to promote effective care and best-practice policy—a design thinking approach 
abstract:BackgroundHealth systems around the world have been forced to make choices about how to prioritize care, manage infection control and maintain reserve capacity for future disease outbreaks. Primary healthcare has moved into the front line as COVID-19 testing transitions from hospitals to multiple providers, where tracking testing behaviours can be fragmented and delayed. Pooled general practice data are a valuable resource which can be used to inform population and individual care decision-making. This project aims to examine the feasibility of using near real-time electronic general practice data to promote effective care and best-practice policy.MethodsThe project will utilize a design thinking approach involving all collaborators (primary health networks [PHNs], general practices, consumer groups, researchers, and digital health developers, pathology professionals) to enhance the development of meaningful and translational project outcomes. The project will be based on a series of observational studies utilizing near real-time electronic general practice data from a secure and comprehensive digital health platform [POpulation Level Analysis and Reporting (POLAR) general practice data warehouse]. The study will be carried out over 1.5 years (July 2020–December 2021) using data from over 450 general practices within three Victorian PHNs and Gippsland PHN, Eastern Melbourne PHN and South Eastern Melbourne PHN, supplemented by data from consenting general practices from two PHNs in New South Wales, Central and Eastern Sydney PHN and South Western Sydney PHN.DiscussionThe project will be developed using a design thinking approach, leading to the building of a meaningful near real-time COVID-19 geospatial reporting framework and dashboard for decision-makers at community, state and nationwide levels, to identify and monitor emerging trends and the impact of interventions/policy decisions. This will integrate timely evidence about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic related to its diagnosis and treatment, and its impact across clinical, population and general practice levels.
location: nan, 'Global 
year: 2021 source: BMC 
title: Coevolution of COVID-19 research and China’s policies 
abstract:BackgroundIn the era of evidence-based policy-making (EBPM), scientific outputs and public policy should engage with each other in a more interactive and coherent way. Notably, this is becoming increasingly critical in preparing for public health emergencies.MethodsTo explore the coevolution dynamics between science and policy (SAP), this study explored the changes in, and development of, COVID-19 research in the early period of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, from 30 December 2019 to 26 June 2020. In this study, VOSviewer was adopted to calculate the link strength of items extracted from scientific publications, and machine learning clustering analysis of scientific publications was carried out to explore dynamic trends in scientific research. Trends in relevant policies that corresponded to changing trends in scientific research were then traced.ResultsThe study observes a salient change in research content as follows: an earlier focus on “children and pregnant patients”, “common symptoms”, “nucleic acid test”, and “non-Chinese medicine” was gradually replaced with a focus on “aged patients”, “pregnant patients”, “severe symptoms and asymptomatic infection”, “antibody assay”, and “Chinese medicine”. “Mental health” is persistent throughout China’s COVID-19 research. Further, our research reveals a correlation between the evolution of COVID-19 policies and the dynamic development of COVID-19 research. The average issuance time of relevant COVID-19 policies in China is 8.36 days after the launching of related research.ConclusionsIn the early stage of the outbreak in China, the formulation of research-driven-COVID-19 policies and related scientific research followed a similar dynamic trend, which is clearly a manifestation of a coevolution model (CEM). The results of this study apply more broadly to the formulation of policies during public health emergencies, and provide the foundation for future EBPM research.