health systems

HST strives to be highly responsive and relevant to policymakers and other key stakeholders. As part of HST’s commitment to prioritising early and widespread dissemination of its health systems and policy research findings, HST has launched the HST HSR Snapshot series. The February 2013 (Volume 1, Issue 1) is the first snapshot to be produced and details the findings of a study which forms part of a larger research project aimed at developing a toolkit to assist with assessing the managerial and public health competencies of facility and sub-district level health care workers.

In concluding our 2011/2012 financial year, HST looks back on a very inspiring and successful twelve months. Inspiring because this was the year during which we celebrated 20 years of excellence in the area of health systems strengthening with exuberance and with continued service to our client communities. Successful because we added two large projects to our already impressive portfolio that allow us to further entrench our significant contribution to health systems strengthening in southern Africa.

The primary goal of the guideline is to improve the quality of care and the outcome in people with type 2 diabetes in low-resource settings. It recommends a set of basic interventions to integrate management of diabetes into primary health care. It will serve as basis for development of simple algorithms for use by health care staff in primary care in low-resource settings, to reduce the risk of acute and chronic complications of diabetes. The guideline was developed by a group of external and WHO experts, following the WHO process of guideline development. GRADE methodology was used to assess the quality of evidence and decide the strength of the recommendations.

Health Systems Trust is a not-for-profit organisation supporting the development of an equitable and comprehensive health system for the provision of quality health care in South and southern Africa.

Health Systems Trust (HST) has a vacancy in the organisation for a passionate, motivated and committed individual to take up the position of Director: Health Systems Research. This senior management position is a one year contract position, renewable based on funding and performance.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

This document has three broad aims.

The School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape is a WHO Collaborating Centre, and has an international reputation as a leading research and teaching institution in Public Health. Its educational and research activities are wide-ranging, with a special focus on health systems research, primary health care, social determinants of health, priority conditions (including TB/HIV and chronic disease) and the implementation of district health systems. The School’s distance learning postgraduate programme, offered through a range of learning media, is unique in Southern Africa.

Effective monitoring of healthcare service delivery and overall performance of the health systems requires functional health information systems capable of producing real time information for decision making. Globally, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has emerged as a critical enabling mechanism to achieve this. This eHealth Strategy for the public health sector in South Africa ushers in a new era of optimism about the capabilities of our health information systems.

Health systems strengthening has become a top priority of many global and national health agendas as a way to improve health outcomes. With the global health context becoming increasingly complex, national health systems are beginning to move away from a focus on disease-specific health responses to comprehensive strengthening of health systems. The global community agrees that without a systems approach, population health outcomes will not further improve and health related development goals such as the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015 will not be met.