Building Our Next Symposium. Who We Are, What We Do.
Dr. Daniel Maceira – HSG Regional Board Representative for the Americas and Chair of the Symposium Program Working Group (PWG) – shares ‘A peek into the work of the HSR 2022 PWG’ through a series of blogs to highlight the program planning and realization for the upcoming Symposium in Bogota, Colombia.
Two years ago, Health Systems Global had the pleasure of announcing that the Seventh Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR 2022) would be held in Bogota, Colombia, from October 31 – November 4, 2022. Organized by HSG and supported by co-sponsors and supporters, the symposium is being hosted by a consortium of organizations from Colombia led by the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, headquartered in Bogotá and Cali, the Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín, the Universidad de Cartagena, the Universidad Colegio Mayor Nuestra Señora del Rosario, and the San Ignacio University Hospital in Bogotá, in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Republic of Colombia.
The organization of each symposium represents a two-year-long consultative process, along with rigorous planning, to bring together leaders from the health research, policy and practice communities to raise and address global health challenges being experienced in an ever-changing global landscape. Several groups of people contribute to the careful organization, planning, and execution of the symposia; this includes the Symposium Executive Committee, Program Working Group (PWG), Local Organizing Committee, Scientific Committee, Fundraising Committee, and the Communications Committee. As we prepare for HSR 2022 later this year, I wanted to reflect on the journey of the PWG leading to the finalization of the scientific program.
The Program Working Group (PWG)
The PWG, chaired by myself and co-chaired by Dr. Enrique Peñaloza, General Director of the Institute of Public Health of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, is the body responsible for deliberating, designing and executing the symposium strategy. It is critical that the PWG composition aligns with HSG’s core values of inclusivity and diversity to enable the development of a program that reflects the same. As such, we worked closely with the HSG Board, requesting our Regional Board Representatives to propose one candidate from each region, and invited Ana Lorena Ruano of the University of Bergen and editor of the International Journal for Equity in Health – one of our key journal partners.
As part of our role in the PWG, we define the total number of sessions that will take place in the symposium within various session categories; plenary sessions, satellite sessions, organized sessions, special sessions, poster presentations and capacity strengthening sessions.
The current PWG comprises 12 members, all of whom are leaders in the health systems space and offer diverse representation that benefits the HSR 2022 program:
- Daniel Maceira (Chair) – Center for the Study of State and Society (CEDES); University of Buenos Aires, Department of Economics; HSG Board Member and Chair for the Americas, Argentina
- Enrique Peñaloza (Co-Chair) – Universidad Javeriana, Colombia
- Ejemai Eboeime – National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Nigeria; University of Alberta, Canada
- Harvy Joy Liwanag – United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, Malaysia
- Lama Bou Karroum – Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
- Paul Rodriguez Lesmes – Universidad del Rosario, Colombia
- Francisco Oveido – Ministry of Health, Costa Rica; HSG Board Member
- Katja Rohrer – Health Systems Governance and Financing Department, WHO, Germany
- Ana Lorena Ruano – International Journal for Equity in Health, University of Bergen, Norway
- Sujarwoto Sujarwoto – University of Brawijaya, Indonesia
- Stephanie Topp – James Cook University; HSG Board Member, Australia
Plenary Session Speakers
The symposium theme appropriately reflects the challenges that health systems across the world have had to face over the past two years – ‘Health Systems Performance in the Political Agenda: Sharing lessons for current and future global challenges’.
One key PWG responsibility is the design and organization of the four plenary sessions; each aligning with the Symposium sub-themes:
- Intersectoral collaboration and integrative governance on the road for health in all policies
- The politics and policies of health systems
- The changing dynamics of health provision models to promote equity, and the central role of human resources for health
- The role of comprehensive primary health care in promoting sustainability, and the contribution of new technologies
In the selection of plenary session speakers, we made a concerted effort to ensure balanced representation at HSR 2022; gender; age, and both regional and intra-regional representation to appropriately reflect the heterogeneity within each region. The PWG members, convened in smaller groups to provide insights and suggestions for potential speakers that could be invited for each session. Based on the list collated, we sent invitation letters to the shortlisted candidates, and are currently receiving responses from them enabling us to simultaneously finalize these sessions.
Next blog coming soon: Shaping the Symposium Scientific Program
It is excellent to know the background work of the conference of such a grand scale. I wish the conference a great success and look forward to attending and learning from it.