World Health Organization (WHO) Reports Findings in Health Services (An assessment of the performance of the national health research system in Mauritius): Health and Medicine – Health Services

2023 MAR 21 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Health and Medicine - Health Services is the subject of a report. According to news originating from Antananarivo, Madagascar, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “The goal of universal health coverage (UHC) is that every individual has access to high-quality health services without running the consequences of financial hardship. The World health report 2013 ‘Research for universal health coverage’ states a performant National Health Research Systems (NHRS) can contribute by providing solutions to challenges encountered in advancing towards UHC by 2030. Pang et al. define a NHRS as the people, institutions, and activities whose primary aim is to generate and promote utilization of high-quality knowledge that can be used to promote, restore, and/or maintain the health status of populations.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from World Health Organization (WHO), “The WHO Regional Committee for Africa (RC) adopted a resolution in 2015 urging member states to strengthen their NHRS to facilitate production and utilization of evidence in policy development, planning, product development, innovation, and decision-making. This study aimed to calculate NHRS barometer scores for Mauritius in 2020, identify the gaps in NHRS performance, and recommend interventions for boosting the Mauritius NHRS in the pursuit of UHC. The study used a cross-sectional survey design. A semi-structured NHRS questionnaire was administered and complemented with a review of documents archived in pertinent Mauritius Government Ministries, universities, research-oriented departments, and non-governmental organizations websites. The African NHRS barometer developed in 2016 for countries to monitor the RC resolution implementation was applied. The barometer consists of four NHRS functions (leadership and governance, developing and sustaining resources, producing and utilizing research, financing research for health [R4H]), and 17 sub-functions, e.g., existence of a national policy on research for health (R4H), presence of a Mauritius Research and Innovation Council (MRIC), existence of knowledge translation platform. In 2020, Mauritius had an overall average NHRS barometer score of 60.84%. The four NHRS functions average indices were 50.0% for leadership and governance, 77.0% for developing and sustaining resources, 52.0% for producing and utilizing R4H, and 58.2% for financing R4H. The performance of NHRS could be improved through the development of a national R4H policy, strategic plan, prioritized agenda, and national multi-stakeholder health research management forum.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Furthermore, increased funding for the NHRS may nurture the human resources for health research capacities, hence the number of pertinent publications and health innovations.”

For more information on this research see: An assessment of the performance of the national health research system in Mauritius. BMC Health Services Research, 2023;23(1):218. BMC Health Services Research can be contacted at: Bmc, Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, England. (BioMed Central - http://www.biomedcentral.com/; BMC Health Services Research - http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmchealthservres/)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from Laurent Musango, World Health Organization (WHO), Country Office, Antananarivo, Madagascar. Additional authors for this research include Ajoy Nundoochan, Yogendranath Ramful and Joses Muthuri Kirigia.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-023-09208-x. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

The publisher’s contact information for the journal BMC Health Services Research is: Bmc, Campus, 4 Crinan St, London N1 9XW, England.

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