Health System Innovation Lab experts want to help countries around the world transform the way care is delivered.
January 24, 2024 – In the fight against COVID-19 and HIV/AIDS, partnerships between governments, private companies, and other organizations have played a critical role in accelerating research and development and expanding treatments. . Now, researchers at Harvard's TH Chan School of Public Health's Health Systems Innovation Lab (HSIL) are helping countries around the world use this approach to address other health challenges.
HSIL has launched a joint initiative with pharmaceutical companies Novartis and Novo Nordisk at the 2022 World Economic Forum in Davos. Global Health Systems Professor Rifat Attun and his colleagues returned to the event this month to present an approach to designing strategic public-private partnerships and measuring their impact with a new tool called Targeted Population Outputs, and a new tool for collaboration. Shared recent success stories. To address cardiovascular disease in Colombia.
high value health system
Atun launched HSIL three years ago with a focus on health systems and developing innovative solutions to global health challenges. “We are trying to build an interdisciplinary community of innovators in public health,” he said. “Public health too often focuses on problems. Of course, it's important to identify and measure problems, but we're not always good at developing solutions.”
He and his colleagues believe that strategic public-private partnerships can help countries build “high-value health systems” that focus on efficiency, effectiveness, equity, and responsiveness, and that deliver “value for money and the greatest number of people.” We believe this is a way to support the transition to something that provides value for people. Overview of public health and medical services provided.
Last fall, HSIL released a report outlining 10 factors, including digital data systems and health outcome measures, to measure whether G20 countries have high-value health systems. The report noted that change has been slow at a national level, but identified a number of successful initiatives that could serve as models, such as Australia's online portal to make hospital cost data transparent.
In recent months, HSIL has brought together international experts to discuss how Brazil is leveraging data analytics to address cardiovascular disease treatment challenges as part of its transition to a high-value health system. A panel discussion was held. How Brazil and other Latin American countries can expand cancer treatment services. and how countries around the world can finance cancer treatment.
Turn research into action
These are just a few of HSIL's efforts to drive health system transformation around the world. In addition to the research and policy work we carry out in collaboration with colleagues from more than 60 countries, HSIL also provides research and teaching opportunities for students and hosts an annual international hackathon, which last year saw students from 37 countries 166 teams participated in person. Place and virtual. Award winners participated in HSIL's venture incubation program and received mentorship and funding.
This year's hackathon will be held simultaneously in April at Harvard University and multiple locations, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Peru, Rwanda, and Switzerland, to harness artificial intelligence to develop high-value health systems. focus on.
Looking to the future, HSIL will develop further opportunities for policymakers to learn from each other. Atun and his colleagues are also partnering with Humboldt University and Freie Universität Berlin and collaborating with Berlin's Charité University Hospital, one of Europe's largest university hospitals, to build a database of health-related laws and policies around the world. . The researchers plan to use machine learning to identify commonalities. The idea is that if policymakers want to enact anti-tobacco laws, for example, they don't have to start from scratch. They can access this resource to pinpoint effective policy components based on their country's income level and political environment.
Atun said this type of research translation is key to HSIL's goals. “It's good to generate evidence and train students. But ultimately we have to develop the right policy and make sure it's implemented.”
– Amy Lauder
Photo: Graphic: iStock / Artist; Atun: Harvard Chan School
