Launch of the Medicines in Health Systems Quarterly
We are very pleased to announce the launch of the Medicines in Health Systems Quarterly newsletter. This newsletter is curated by the Medicines in Health Systems Thematic Working Group of Health Systems Global, which aims to facilitate positive change in medicines availability, access, affordability, and use, by informing and facilitating dialogue among different stakeholders.
Medicines are key determinants of population health and of society’s trust in the quality and the financial viability of health systems. They can also harm individuals and are among the top sources of system inefficiencies. Different stakeholders legitimately have competing objectives for medicines in health systems. To continuously balance competing objectives in dynamic health systems requires dialogue among, and actions by, different stakeholders, including those responsible for health financing, care delivery, governance and human resources. Stakeholders outside the health sector, including those focused on infrastructure and trade, can also influence medicines situations.
For productive dialogue to create positive change, stakeholders within and across systems need to understand their respective perspectives and the multiple system determinants of medicines availability, access, affordability, and use.
This quarterly newsletter seeks to serve as a means to inform and foster communication. Our intent is not to duplicate excellent information that resides among the global community of medicines experts. Rather, we seek to create information bridges among different expert communities, including those focused on medicines and those focused on other aspects of health systems.
We start the newsletter by highlighting findings from selected recently published research on medicines in health systems, announcing conferences and training sessions relevant to medicines in health systems, and featuring projects by members of the working group and readers of the newsletter.
However, we would like to hear from you. What information would you like to see? What information would you like to share?
We invite you to describe your work on medicines in health systems to be featured in the newsletter. We welcome brief (up to 300 words) descriptions of planned or ongoing research projects. Projects could focus on health system changes that may impact, positively or negatively, different aspects of medicines in health systems, including availability, access, affordability, or use. Of particular interest are applications of health policy and systems research methods to medicines issues in health systems. We also welcome questions on measuring impacts of health system changes on aspects related to medicines.
Please feel free to send us references to your recent publications, or information on an upcoming event or training program relevant to medicines’ roles in health systems. Please send your contributions, questions, and suggestions to Dena Javadiat denajavadi(at)gmail.com.
We look forward to learning from each other, to identify ways to optimise the positive impacts of medicines in health systems, and manage potential negative ones. Thank you for joining this endeavour.
With our best wishes,
Maryam Bigdeli |Isabel Emmerick | Laura Garabedian| Dena Javadi | Vera Luiza | Arash Rashidian | Anita Wagner
You can view the first issue of the Medicines in Health Systems Quarterly here.
