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Innovation in health systems in low- and middle-income countries

Innovation in health systemsEdited by Priya Balasubramanian, Desta Lakew, Gerald Bloom and Carolina Szyp
Globalization and Health

There is a growing interest in the potential of new technologies and innovative organizational arrangements to contribute to big improvements in the capacity of a health system to provide access to safe, effective and affordable services. Only a small proportion of the many investments in innovations have been shown to have an impact at scale. The papers in this series analyze the factors that enable and constrain the emergence and diffusion of health system innovations. They bring alternative perspectives to this issue, based on diverse local contexts and different types of innovation. They explore the implications of a complex global context in which the interaction between local and global actors influences the direction of health system development; transnational corporations are often important sources of innovation, and middle-income countries important loci of global innovation. There remains little agreement on the regulation of new technologies. The aim of papers in this collection is to provide a stronger basis for the formulation of strategies for managing health system change in low- and middle-income countries.

Publication charges for select articles in this collection were funded from a grant by UK Aid to the Future Health Systems Consortium. Articles have undergone the journal’s standard peer-review process overseen by the Guest Editors, who declare no competing interests.

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  1. Despite progress in global health, the general disease burden still disproportionately falls on low- and middle-income countries. The health needs of these countries’ populations are unmet because there is a s...

    Authors: Vivian Chia-Jou Lee, Jacqueline Yao and William Zhang
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2021 17:101
  2. Creating ‘liveable’ cities has become a priority for various sectors, including those tasked with improving population health and reducing inequities. Two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities b...

    Authors: Amanda Alderton, Melanie Davern, Kornsupha Nitvimol, Iain Butterworth, Carl Higgs, Elizabeth Ryan and Hannah Badland
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2019 15:51
  3. In Uganda, more than 336 out of every 100,000 women die annually during childbirth. Pregnant women, particularly in rural areas, often lack the financial resources and means to access health facilities in a ti...

    Authors: Ligia Paina, Gertrude Namazzi, Moses Tetui, Chrispus Mayora, Rornald Muhumuza Kananura, Suzanne N. Kiwanuka, Peter Waiswa, Aloysius Mutebi and Elizabeth Ekirapa-Kiracho
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2019 15:38
  4. Healthcare systems are increasingly recognised as complex, in which a range of non-linear and emergent behaviours occur. China’s healthcare system is no exception. The hugeness of China, and the variation in c...

    Authors: Yue Xiao, Lewis Husain and Gerald Bloom
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2018 14:112
  5. In 2011, a decision was made to scale up a pilot innovation involving ‘adherence clubs’ as a form of differentiated care for HIV positive people in the public sector antiretroviral therapy programme in the Wes...

    Authors: Hayley MacGregor, Andrew McKenzie, Tanya Jacobs and Angelica Ullauri
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2018 14:40
  6. Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) which enable people to access, use and promote health information through digital technology, promise important health systems innovations which can challenge...

    Authors: Linda Waldman, Tanvir Ahmed, Nigel Scott, Shahinoor Akter, Hilary Standing and Sabrina Rasheed
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2018 14:31
  7. The aim of this paper is to contribute to debates about how governments and other stakeholders can influence the application of ICTs to increase access to safe, effective and affordable treatment of common ill...

    Authors: Gerald Bloom, Evangelia Berdou, Hilary Standing, Zhilei Guo and Alain Labrique
    Citation: Globalization and Health 2017 13:56