E-DRUG: Health Policy and Systems Research Report: Medicines in Health Systems
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The Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, WHO, is pleased to announce the release of its 4th Flagship Report on Medicines in Health Systems: advancing access, affordability and appropriate use.
The report is co-edited by Maryam Bigdeli, David H. Peters and Anita K. Wagner.
It can be downloaded at the following address:
http://www.who.int/alliance-hpsr/resources/flagshipreports/en/index1.html
The report employs a health systems approach to provide an analysis of essential medicines in LMICs.
Through the use of country case-studies, the report evaluates the stated goals of medicines policies against their actual outcomes and implementation challenges. The report also offers guidance and recommendations to inform, monitor, and appraise the inevitable reforms required to increase the availability of quality-assured, cost-effective medicines in resource-poor settings. As different elements of systems must function in a coordinated fashion to ensure that medicines benefit lives - from the development, production, marketing, registration, selection, financing, procurement, distribution, prescribing, dispensing and ultimately use of medicines - the inclusion of multiple stakeholders is of critical importance.
This report is intended for each one of these actors.
The report was officially launched at the Third Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Cape Town, South Africa. The launch session was moderated by John-Arne Røtingen, chair of the Alliance Board. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO Assistant Director General opened the session with welcome remarks. Following a short presentation of the report's content by Anita Wagner, from Harvard Medical School, three panellists (Kees de Joncheere, WHO; Anban Pillay, MOH South Africa and Tim Evans, WB) were invited to reflect on how, as decision makers, they would take the recommendations of the report on board.
Göran Tomson, chair of Alliance Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee closed the session by highlighting how this work brought new perspectives in the work on essential medicines and why it was important in many aspects, including for combatting antimicrobial resistance. In the future, it is important that medicines in health systems become "everybody's business".
Maryam Bigdeli
Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research (HSR/HIS)
World Health Organization
20 Avenue Appia, CH-1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 791 2642
GPN 12642 - office 1111
email: bigdelim@who.int
http://www.who.int/alliance-hpsr/