Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Health Priorities”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 541 records · Page 30Linked to original sources
PubMed1996

Emerging issues in international mental health services research.

In developed nations, interest in mental health services research is increasing, which parallels an increased appreciation of the social and financial costs of mental illness and a growing need to identify cost-effective patterns of care. This paper examines common challenges in mental health services research, such as adjudicating between competing mental health priorities, designing research to better understand key elements in successful interventions, defining treatment outcomes more broadly to reflect consumer and family preference and quality of life, and linking services to improve community care. Using the assertive community treatment model as an example, the paper focuses on some of the differences between services research and controlled clinical investigations and the difficulties of looking inside the "black box" of effective interventions.

Community Mental Health Services↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[The preventive and health promotion services for infants, children and youth. What is problematic for clients of the CLSCs].

OBJECTIVE: This article presents the results of a survey on preventive and health promotion (PHP) services provided by Quebec CLSCs for infants, children and youth. Two dimensions of services are examined: the diversity of PHP issues addressed and the type of clientele targeted by the CLSC team. METHODS: Questionnaire survey. RESULTS: Although identified a priori as public health priorities, many PHP issues remain less often addressed by CLSCs. This is particularly the case for activities aimed at children and youth as compared to infants. In addition, the data show that CLSC teams are less inclined to target specific clienteles; when they do so, it is more often in the context of services for infants. DISCUSSION: This study is important in that it constitutes one of the first efforts to systematically document PHP services for infants, children, and youth. In shedding new light on intervention sectors that need to be reinforced, these results should help managers and policymakers as they reflect on the role of PHP services in CLSCs within the context of health reform.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2003

Measuring the job performance of district health managers in Latin America.

In resource-poor countries, district health managers (DHM) have gained importance as health systems have become decentralized. Although the roles and key functions of DHM have been described in the literature, there appears to have been no analysis of what they are really doing. In this context, the knowledge and job performance of 218 DHM from nine Latin American countries were investigated. The study was based on 12 performance indicators, two self-administered questionnaires (which included internal consistency tests), formal and informal, check interviews in the work place, and direct observations of the DHM. The DHM investigated were found to be particularly weak in systems management (community involvement and intersectoral co-operation), monitoring activities and the systematic organization of meetings. They were rarely involved in the identification of priority health problems or of high-risk groups, and failed to use health-service indicators sufficiently for the analysis of the district health system. The managers were stronger in relation to the organization of technical meetings and the development and implementation of local health plans. Factors associated with good management performance were a favourable organizational structure (including written job descriptions and support from the authorities), 'decision power' (i.e. the ability to select and appoint new staff ) and a good knowledge of the local situation. In Latin America, at least, DHM need to be better prepared, supervised and supported.

Administrative Personnel↗
PubMed2003

Meeting the challenge of chronic illness in general practice.

Seven of every 10 general practice encounters are for chronic conditions. Three common chronic conditions managed by GPs are depression, diabetes and asthma. Two of these are National Health Priority Areas (NHPAs), while depression is the focus of the mental health NHPA. General practice care for people with depression is being strengthened by the "Better outcomes in mental health care initiative", which includes a 3 Step Mental Health Process - assessment, mental health plan, and review. GPs have the opportunity to screen patients for diabetes and manage their condition. For those with risk factors who screen negative, GPs are well placed to encourage lifestyle interventions. Two of the four components of the National Integrated Diabetes Program focus on general practice. The Asthma 3+ Visit Plan, which incorporates diagnosis and assessment of asthma, development of a written asthma plan, and review of asthma management, has been shown to improve GPs' management of asthma. These initiatives to improve general practice interventions for chronic illness, although welcomed, put further pressure on already overstretched GPs coping with multiple changes in the primary-care sector.

Asthma↗
PubMed1999

Bibliometric analysis of HRC-supported biomedical publications, 1990 to 1994.

AIM: To document changes in the rate and impact of publications resulting from Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) biomedical grants since its inception and to relate the number of publications to Health Priority Areas, fields of research and specific types of grant. METHODS: All original papers or reviews and editorials published by HRC-supported investigators in peer-refereed journals, from 1990 to 1994, were entered into a bibliographic database. RESULTS: In this five-year period, researchers receiving HRC biomedical grants published a total of 2094 articles in 623 peer-reviewed journals, of which 1190 (57%) derived from HRC support. Of the publications, 90.2% were original papers; the remainder were reviews or editorials. From 1990 to 1994, there was an increase in the number of HRC-supported publications (p<0.04) but not of those deriving from other support. There was no change in the quality of publications over this period, as reflected by the impact factor (a measure of the number of times that publications in a journal are cited). The majority (62.6%) of publications derived from project grants, however, the average cost per publication was 8.4% higher for project than for programme (multi-investigator) grants. Finally, nearly 40% of HRC publications directly addressed designated health priority areas. CONCLUSIONS: The present study has examined one aspect of the value for money obtained from the public investment in biomedical research. As the HRC is the major provider of contestable biomedical research funding in New Zealand, bibliometric analysis may be of ongoing value to monitor the effects of changes to the organisation of biomedical research funding in New Zealand.

Bibliometrics↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[A decade of child health research in developing countries].

Child mortality continues to be a public health priority world-wide. Even though under-five mortality rates have declined from an estimated 84 per 1000 in 1985-89 to 67 per 1000 in 1999, wide geographical differences persist. During the 1990 World Summit on Children in New York, the world's policy-makers and researchers made improving children's lives by ensuring that each child receives the best care and attention possible their main goal. The strategies identified to achieve this goal have guided and benefited from the progress in child health research throughout the last decade. Indeed, research into the causes of ill-health informs and guides public health programmes to improve the burden of preventable deaths, but it requires sustained and renewed investments for the developing world. In this review paper we have aimed to describe the magnitude of current child morbidity and mortality in the developing world; to review the main advances in child health research since the 1990 World Summit on Children and evaluate the implication of different institutions involved in international child health; to measure the adequacy between priority research setting and public health needs for child health in developing countries; to identify constraints in the application of the research results; and to define key strategies and research challenges that are required in the next decade to respond to child heath needs in developing countries. This assessment is based on a ten-year literature review through Medline and a survey to key international informants in the field of child health in developing countries, using a trilingual open-ended questionnaire. The literature published from January 1990 to June 2001, covering more than 4,700 references, enabled us to review more than 130 articles. We contacted 91 institutions involved in child health, located in 27 countries from five continents, and the response rate to our survey was 49.5%. The current priority health needs of children in developing countries most frequently stated in the literature are the reduction of the burden of malnutrition, diarrhoeal diseases, respiratory diseases, perinatal health, HIV/AIDS, measles and malaria. Based on the survey results, malnutrition (78% of respondents) and perinatal health were the most frequently quoted. Less than 15% of the survey respondents provided an example of a successful application of research in the field of infectious diseases. Political support and conflict of interest are the main constraints mentioned. Malnutrition and non-communicable diseases are considered as main areas of neglect in the field of child health research. Our study shows that the perception of field actors in child health on research priorities does not always correspond to the reality of health needs of children in developing countries. Furthermore, it appears that descriptive epidemiology, evaluation and priority setting strategies are essential tools to guide adequate research activities and further improvement of child health.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Toxic agent and radiation control: meeting the 1990 objectives for the nation.

Toxic agent and radiation control is 1 of the 15 health priority areas addressed through the Public Health Service's Objectives for the Nation. Several gains in moving toward the 1990 goals for toxic agent and radiation control have been recorded. Research and technical assistance, combined with legislation to reduce the amount of lead in gasoline, have contributed to a decrease in the mean blood lead level of the general population. New testing procedures have been developed to evaluate both reproductive and developmental toxicities of chemicals. Educational implementation of pelvimetry referral criteria in a multiyear study involving approximately 200 U.S. hospitals has resulted in a 50 percent reduction in the number of pelvimetries performed. Health-related responses have been given to environmental problems such as exposures to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in Massachusetts and Florida and exposures to dioxin in Missouri and New Jersey. Chemical records for some 1,000 compounds likely to occur in chemical dumps or in bulk transit are being either created or updated to enhance online data retrieval services. For the foreseeable future, however, improvement of knowledge of the potential health risk posed by toxic chemicals and radiation must remain one of the most important priorities. To control toxic agents, development of surveillance systems and data bases are equally important.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Priority setting for health technology assessment in The Netherlands: principles and practice.

The resources for health technology assessment fall short of that needed to evaluate all health technologies. Therefore, priorities have to be set. In The Netherlands, the Health Care Insurance Board tried to address this issue by developing a more explicit priority setting procedure for the Fund for Investigative Medicine, which is the most important health technology assessment programme in The Netherlands. The procedure provides one of the first examples of the application of theoretical principles for priority setting. The aim is to select those health technologies for assessment that are most relevant for policy-making. To determine the policy relevance of research proposals, different procedures for categorising, scoring, and weighting policy criteria were defined, and different classification strategies were explored. Our first experiences using the priority setting procedure are described by means of an example on low back pain. Subsequently, the procedure has been applied to research proposals submitted to the Fund for Investigative Medicine in 1998 to illustrate how decisions on the funding of health technology assessments can be guided. The results show a different rating of research proposals into one of three predefined categories of policy relevance, high, intermediate and low, implying that decisions about funding can heavily dependent on the selected procedure. Therefore, it seems to be important that the selected procedure reflects the viewpoint of the organisation wishing to set priorities. The different ratings of the research proposals using a more explicit procedure suggest that there may be scope for further development and application of the procedure.

Health Policy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Virucides in prevention of HIV infection. Research Priorities. World Health Organization Working Group on Virucides.

Vaginal spermicides have microbicidal properties that suggest their usefulness in helping to protect against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and other sexually transmitted infections. Laboratory, animal, and clinical investigations also support this notion. Because of the importance of identifying additional methods to protect against these infections, however, better information is needed on these female-controlled methods. A consistent set of laboratory standards is needed to evaluate the in vitro activity of existing and future virucides. Further evaluation of such areas as the actions of virucides and vehicles on different anatomical sites and safety studies to better judge determinants of toxicity are needed. Clinical studies might compare efficacy of spermicides and condoms in prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases as well as investigate psychosocial considerations that determine suitable candidates for vaginal virucides, how they are used, and how their use might be improved.

Anti-Infective Agents, Local↗