The Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health has been awarded a
$6.7 million contract to investigate the health of poor
residents living in developing countries by the Department
for International Development, a British government agency
that manages aid to poor countries and works to rid the
world of extreme poverty.
David Peters, an associate professor in the Bloomberg
School's Department of
International Health who is an expert in improving
health system performance in low-income countries, will
lead an international consortium of researchers known as
Future Health Systems: Making Health Systems Work for the
Poor. Over the next five years, the group plans to examine
health systems in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India,
Nigeria and Uganda and then work with stakeholders in each
country to design health programs that address each
country's needs.
"We hope to bring policy-makers from influential
countries together with leading public health and
development research institutions. Together, we want to
find out which options in financing of health care will
reduce the risk of poverty and which strategies will
improve access to health services. We want to link
researchers and policy-makers at local, national and global
levels. If we can create those relationships, the poor,
worldwide, will be better off. We hope to identify ways in
which health systems research can influence policy and
programs to promote the interests of the poor," Peters
said.
In many developing countries, he said, there is a
disconnect between formal rules for health systems and the
realities on the ground. The poor are faced with multiple
barriers, from obtaining health care in the first place to
finding and affording prescription drugs.
"Ultimately, this consortium's goal is to disseminate
our findings to influence policy and programs in partner
countries and beyond, so that health systems are made more
effective, efficient and equitable to meet the needs of the
poor. It is our hope that future health systems will be
pro-poor and deliver services in a high-quality, affordable
and accountable manner," Peters said.
The consortium will have multidisciplinary
international and national advisory panels to provide
technical oversight. Institutional partners will include
the Institute of Development Studies in the United Kingdom;
the Centre for Health and Population Research at the
International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research in
Dhaka, Bangladesh; the Chinese Health Economics Institute
in Beijing; the Indian Institute of Health Management
Research in Jaipur, India; the Institute of Public Health
at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda; and the
University of Ibadan College of Medicine, Public Health
faculty in Ibadan, Nigeria.
Additional Bloomberg School faculty involved in the
program are Gilbert Burnham, William Brieger, Hugh Waters,
Adnan Hyder and David Bishai.
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