Advancing the Science and Practice of People-Centered Health Systems
CapacityPlus is sponsoring satellite events and participating in presentations at the Third Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Cape Town, September 29–October 3.
The theme of this year’s symposium is the science and practice of people-centered health systems. Researchers, policy-makers, funders, implementers, and other stakeholders will work together to make health systems more responsive to the needs of individuals, families, and communities. Use #HSR2014 on Twitter to contribute to the conversation.
Monday, September 29
10:30-12:30, Room 1.42
Transforming Health Workforce Education for Health Equity: Practical Tools and Approaches (026)
Organizers: IntraHealth International, CapacityPlus
CapacityPlus/IntraHealth speakers: Rebecca Bailey, Lois Schaefer (USAID)
- This interactive event will share practical approaches and tools for overcoming challenges in transforming and scaling up health workforce education. Topics include a Dean’s Dashboard for improved management of health professional schools, best buys for overcoming constraints to scaling up health worker production, estimating the unit costs of producing graduates, tracking graduates, community-based education, and private-sector involvement to expand the health workforce in underserved areas.
13:30-17:00, Room 1.42
Applying the WHO Workload Indicators of Staffing Need Tool at the Country Level (027)
Organizers: CapacityPlus, World Health Organization/Regional Office for Africa
CapacityPlus/IntraHealth speakers: Pamela McQuide, Maritza Titus, Rebecca Bailey
- This session will engage participants in the rationale and key steps for applying the WHO Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) tool to generate people-centered and service-based evidence for estimating health workforce requirements and ensuring equity in staffing. It will include hands-on work in small groups to demonstrate how WISN works, using country examples.
Tuesday, September 30
09:00-17:00, Room 1.63-1.64
How Can Research Guide Policy-Making to Address Human Resources for Health Challenges and Ensure People-Centered Health Systems for Universal Health Coverage? (021)
Organizers: World Bank, CapacityPlus, World Health Organization, African Development Bank, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
CapacityPlus/IntraHealth speakers: Kate Tulenko, Rebecca Bailey, Wanda Jaskiewicz
- This full-day session will: 1) outline a comprehensive health labor market framework to design and plan effective health workforce policies; 2) explore the relationship between health professionals’ education and labor market dynamics; and 3) discuss a framework for assessing health workforce performance and the effectiveness of different strategies and incentives to improve performance. Policy-makers from low- and middle-income countries will discuss how these research methods are useful to develop policies to ensure more people-centered health systems. Participants can share experiences, seek guidance on application of the research techniques, discuss policy implications, and define the research agenda.
Wednesday, October 1
14:30-16:00, Room 1.41
Valuation and Cost-Effectiveness of Rural Incentive Packages for New Physicians in Lao PDR
Oral presentation by Eric Keuffel
Authors: Eric Keuffel, Wanda Jaskiewicz, Khampasong Theppanya, Kate Tulenko
- The authors analyzed a discrete choice experiment conducted among medical students to determine which components and incentive packages would be cost effective in increasing voluntary rural entry among new physicians, taking into account the expected indirect health benefits generated by improving the distribution of physicians. Willingness to pay for incentive components was estimated with a mixed logit regression. Using a separate costing survey, the authors compared the student valuations with the actual costs of each component, applied relative risk measures to estimate to what extent different proposed incentive packages would increase additional rural entry, then generated cost effectiveness ratios for each incentive bundle.
16:00-16:30, Conservatories
Study of Attrition, Availability, and Retention of Midwife Service Scheme Officers in Nigeria between 2009 and 2012
Poster presentation by Wanda Jaskiewicz
Authors: Seyi Olujimi, Samuel Ngobua, Randi Burlew, Wanda Jaskiewicz, Paul Marsden
- The Midwives Service Scheme, established in 2009 to reduce Nigeria’s high maternal mortality rate, supplies midwives to rural and remote areas where they are most needed. CapacityPlus collaborated with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency to study factors underpinning attrition, availability, and retention of personnel and propose measures for motivating and retaining rural-based midwives.
Thursday, October 2
11:00-11:30, Conservatories
Developing a Human Resources for Health (HRH) Effort Index to Measure and Track Country-Level Inputs in HRH
Poster presentation by Alfredo Fort
Authors: Randi Burlew, Alfredo Fort, Rachel Deussom
- Current indicators used to measure efforts and progress in HRH are limited and often unreliable. These limitations constrain country, donor, and program efforts to identify and address gaps in HRH and to track progress over time. CapacityPlus developed the HRH Effort Index to enable countries, program implementers, and donors to more readily assess and measure national HRH inputs and potentially to predict workforce performance, service use, and quality.
11:30-13:00, Room 2.64
“That’s Improvement!”: Uganda Focuses on Health Workers
Video screening
Authors: Carol Bales, Sarah Dwyer
- Meet three Ugandan health workers who love their jobs. Agnes, Habiba, and Alex find joy in serving their clients, but they face many challenges—and there are simply not enough health workers to meet the demand. To improve health services, Uganda is focusing on the people that provide quality care. This seven-minute film shows how these efforts to strengthen the health system are paying off. The tools and approaches that Uganda has successfully used are available for other countries to adapt to their contexts.
Friday, October 3
13:50-14:20, Conservatories
Cost of Preservice Education for Health Workers: Balancing Quantity and Quality
Poster presentation by Rebecca Bailey
Authors: Sophie Faye, Rebecca Bailey, Azeb Admasu, Yemesrach Adamu, Elias Asfaw, Steven Musau, Ben Johns
- CapacityPlus, Ethiopia’s federal ministries of health and education, and the Nursing Education Partnership Initiative conducted a retrospective cost assessment of the undergraduate nursing and midwifery programs at University of Gondar College of Medicine and Health Sciences and Arbaminch College of Health Sciences. The objectives were to assess the production of nursing and midwifery graduates in terms of the unit costs and infrastructure constraints, and simulate changes in unit costs arising from a proposed set of improvement interventions.
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