HPSR Knowledge Platform
![](https://hsrii.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Slide1-001.jpg)
Health Policy & Systems Research (HPSR), is an emerging global field with its own evolving standards for creating, evaluating, and utilizing knowledge, and distinguished by a particular orientation towards influencing policy and wider action to strengthen health systems. It is widely recognized as a critical element of the action needed to achieve the health-focused Millennium Development Goals, strengthen primary health care, and advance towards Universal Health Coverage. The Alliance for Health Systems and Policy Research (ASHPR) at WHO has identified nodal institutes in several countries, housed in academic/research institutions which are critically engaged in Implementation Research (IR) and Health Policy & Systems Research (HPSR).A Nodal Institute serves as a resource for 7-10 academic/research institutions and decision-making bodies in its respective territory. The functions of the Nodal Institute include developing training programs for researchers, carrying out biannual mapping of health systems research and practice, collaborating with other IRP partners and initiatives, supporting scale up of effective interventions and promoting IR & HPSR..
India has a growing community of Health Policy & Systems Researchers with varied disciplinary antecedents in the social sciences and public health. Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), is designated as the Nodal Institute for Health Policy and Systems Research for India by the AHPSR. As the Nodal Institute of the Alliance for Health Policy & Systems Research in India, PHFI has the mandate to support HPSR community and capacity development, extend collaborations with existing HPSR institutions and researchers and to facilitate the use of HPSR evidence by health system decision-makers in the country. PHFI, in partnership with premier HPSR organizations in India and inputs from other global leaders in the field, has contributed significantly to this mandate. So far the Nodal Institute has mapped national capacity for HPSR in India, held a series of interactions between researchers and policy makers, and initiated some critical dialogues with the health ministry towards realizing an institutionalized support environment for HPSR in India. It has convened as well as supported presence of Indian HPSR researchers in Global Health Systems Research Symposiums. It has also successfully launched a nationwide HPSR capacity building initiative “KEYSTONE” involving lead researchers and institutions involved in HPSR- 20 researchers identified through a rigorous selection process got trained under this initiative, by a group of faculty pooled from renowned HPSR institutions. It has facilitated involvement of several internationally known health systems and policy researchers and research initiatives for this process as well.
One of the mandates of the Nodal Institute project was to strengthen the existing networks and initiatives engaged in health systems research and dissemination of health systems knowledge. In this regard PHFI extended its support to Health Systems Research India Initiative (HSRII), for further strengthening its activities and initiatives. HSRII is one of the leading knowledge exchange platforms aimed at facilitating knowledge dissemination of health systems research as well as implementation research in India. Objective of this initiative is strengthening health systems through knowledge exchange and through implementing health systems initiatives in India. During the Third Health Systems Global Symposium held at Cape Town in 2014, HSRII received the first “Health Systems Global Social Media Award” for the best use of social media for informing, advocating and engaging for health systems. With the support of the Nodal Institute project, HSRII knowledge network is now being migrated into the current web based platform. The website based Knowledge Exchange Platform includes new initiatives such as (1) HPSR Blog, (2) HPSR Article-Watch, (3) HPSR News-Watch, (4) HPSR Event-Watch and (5) HPSR Newsletter; all these will facilitate optimum dissemination of health systems knowledge and strengthen the HPSR community interactions in the country.
In addition to its primary mandate of strengthening HPSR knowledge dissemination under this project, the HSRII has also provided data collection interface and technical assistance to the Nodal Institute team for conducting and managing the first National Survey of organizations engaged in HPSR – as a first survey of its kind in the country, this helped in identifying various issues and concerns related to HPSR capacities in the country.
We will be happy to have your valuable feedbacks on the newly built up web interface and its utility. Our sincere thanks to the AHPSR Nodal Institute team at PHFI, for their support to make this happen.
Latest Updates
Article Watch, Event Watch, Blogs etcPregnancy wastage among HIV infected women in a high HIV prevalence district of India
Pregnancy wastage among HIV infected women in a high HIV prevalence district of India Shiva S. Halli et al BMC Public Health 2015 Background Bagalkot district in Karnataka state is one of the highest HIV prevalence districts in India. A large proportion of the girls...
Developing locally contextual Psychological Treatment strategies
Dear All, Happy to share our recent study on evaluating of the process of developing locally contextual 'Psychological Treatment strategies' in developing country settings. Vellakkal S, Patel V (2015) Designing Psychological Treatments for Scalability: The PREMIUM...
Deaths from acute abdominal conditions and geographical access to surgical care in India: a nationally representative spatial analysis
Deaths from acute abdominal conditions and geographical access to surgical care in India: a nationally representative spatial analysis Anna J Dare et al Lancet Global Health Background Few population-based studies quantify mortality from surgical conditions and relate...
Barriers to Point-of-Care Testing in India: Results from Qualitative Research across Different Settings, Users and Major Diseases
Barriers to Point-of-Care Testing in India: Results from Qualitative Research across Different Settings, Users and Major Diseases Nora Engel et al Plos One August 14, 2015 Abstract Background Successful point-of-care testing, namely ensuring the completion of the test...
RHS 2015
Dear all, RHS - 2015 is out. This time it has data for training centers also. You can download the report from...
Introducing the Journal of Health Systems (JHS)
Dear Members Health Systems Research India Initiative is proud to introduce Journal of Health Systems (JHS)- a peer reviewed open access journal and the article submission portal, http://jhs.hsrii.org/submit The Health Systems approach calls for a multi-dimensional...
Barriers to Progress on Maternal and Child Health
Please find enclosed the link to a paper in which I explore whether our very focus on MCH is now delaying our progress on achieving MCH goals: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2648846 – would be grateful for any comments and guidance.
Socio-Economic Differentials in Impoverishment Effects of Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditure in China and India: Evidence from WHO SAGE
Socio-Economic Differentials in Impoverishment Effects of Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditure in China and India: Evidence from WHO SAGE Kaushalendra Kumar et al PLOS One Abstract Background and Objectives The provision of affordable health care is generally considered a...
Financing and Provision of Healthcare
Please find enclosed the link to a paper in which we explore if it is indeed the best proposition to aim for a 100% tax financed and 100% government provided health system (the 100-100 option) which only Cuba has successfully adopted or if more alternatives need to be...
Japanese Encephalitis in Assam, India: Need to Increase Healthcare Workers’ Understanding to Improve Health Care
Japanese Encephalitis in Assam, India: Need to Increase Healthcare Workers’ Understanding to Improve Health Care Akram Ahmad et al,PLOS One Abstract Introduction Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a major cause of high morbidity and mortality in several states across...