E-DRUG: Call for Papers for a Journal Supplement on Access to Medicines
through Health Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
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Dear e-drug members,
The Medicines in Health Systems Thematic Working Group is seeking
contributions for an article collection that showcases the successes and
challenges of improving access to high-quality medicines in the health
systems of low- and middle-income countries. This call is open to members of
Health Systems Global and their collaborators.
Access to medicines is part of the right to health as noted by the World
Health Organization [1]. Patients have proper access to medicine, if they
are able to get the right medicine when they need it, for the right duration
and at affordable prices. Despite the importance of medicines in reducing
the worlds morbidity and mortality, availability of affordable medicines
continues to be poor especially in low- and middle-income countries.
Barriers to access include various health systems challenges, where studies
have highlighted the importance of the health system in improving medicinal
access [2-4]. This special issue will focus on access to medicines with a
health systems lens. Evidence on current status of access to medicines
across countries, or policies/interventions by public and/or private actors
that have improved access to medicines in low- and middle-countries are
welcome. Special areas of interest might include but are not limited to:
Assessment of patient reach by medicine type and country and underlying
reasons for such reach or lack of it
Pricing and affordability of medicines in low and middle-income countries
Addressing nonaffordability barriers to patient access
Quality of medicines in the health system in low and middle-income
countries
Assessment of and innovations in the medicine supply chain through the
health systems in low and middle-income countries
We look forward to reviews and empirical submissions that engage with
understanding medicinal access that take a health systems perspective, and
apply scientific methods to measure, assess, or improve access to various
medications in developing countries. Priority will be given to research
teams based in and/or conducting research in low- and middle-income
countries.
The Medicines in Health Systems Thematic Working Group will support the
selection, compilation and financing toward the journal supplement. We will
submit the group of selected articles to Health Policy and Planning for
consideration. The journal requires the names of authors and abstracts for
each paper to consider the full supplement, and at least half of the papers
be submitted within 3 months from proposal approval.
Please submit abstracts of up to 300 words as a word document
to ozawa@unc.edu by February 16, 2018. In the submission, please confirm
that you will commit to submitting a full manuscript by June 15, 2018.
Following evaluation, selected authors will be invited to submit full papers
by June 15, 2018 for full peer review.
For any questions, please contact us:
Sachiko Ozawa, ozawa@unc.edu
Raja Shankar, raja.shankar@iqvia.com
Christine Leopold, christine_leopold1@harvardpilgrim.org
References:
[1] World Health Organization, Annual Report, WHO Essential Medicines and
Health Products
2016. http://www.who.int/medicines/publications/annual-reports/WHO_EMP_Repor
t_2016_Online.pdf
[2] Alsairi R. Access to Medicine in Developing Countries. American Journal
of Medicine and Medical Sciences. 2017, 7(6): 271-276.
[3] Bigdeli M, Jacobs B, Tomson G, Laing R, Ghaffar A, Dujardin B, Van Damme
W. Access to medicines from a health system perspective. Health Policy
Plan, 2013, 28, 692-704.
[4] Emmerick I, Luiza CM, Camacho L, Vialle-Valantin C, Ross-Degnan
D. Barriers in household access to medicines for chronic conditions in three
Latin American countries. International Journal for Equity in Health, 2015,
14, 115.
Christine Leopold, PhD, MSc | Senior Research Fellow
Division of Health Policy and Insurance Research (HPI)
Harvard Medical School & Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute
Email: christine_leopold1@harvardpilgrim.org