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Costing Health Services in India – Incremental Steps Towards More Transparent Decision-Making

Jul. 10, 2020

With a population of 1.4 billion and very limited public funding for healthcare (1.29 percent of GDP), an important priority for India is ensuring equitable and cost-effective healthcare. To meet these priorities, in 2018, the Government of India launched the world’s largest publicly funded health insurance scheme (ABPM-JAY), which includes a greater role for India’s large and growing private healthcare …

A call to policy-makers working on COVID-19 national response: how can we improve the use of models?

May. 20, 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic is evolving, a growing number of countries are making use of information derived from mathematical models in policy and public communication. In a review conducted as of March 2020, 31 COVID-19 models were identified, with different objectives, methods and data/results reported in the public domain. The type of models employed by the countries vary but we …

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The Health Technology Assessment programme in India (HTAIn): two exciting developments

By Françoise Cluzeau Aug. 14, 2019

The International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) is proud to support India as it continues to make huge strides towards health priority setting.  iDSI has an ongoing technical assistance programme with the Government of India through the Department of Health Research (DHR) with a focus on Health Technology Assessment (HTA). The Health Technology Assessment programme (HTAIn) which is funded by the …

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Spotlight on: iDSI, Sida and CHAI session on health financing towards Universal Health Coverage at Global Symposium on Health Systems Research

Oct. 31, 2018

At this year’s Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, iDSI collaborated with Sida and CHAI for the first time on convening a well-attended satellite session dedicated to health financing towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) – paving the way for more collaborations in future as we explore joint work across Sub Saharan Africa to support priority-setting for UHC. The session brought …

Impact in Indonesia: two low value cancer drugs to be removed from national medicines list

By Madeleine Stewart, Manushi Sharma, Ryan Li Oct. 18, 2018

iDSI’s impact in Indonesia was commended during the Fifth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR) which took place in Liverpool last week. As part of a satellite session iDSI hosted with CHAI and Sida, ‘Health financing towards UHC’, Pak Budi Hidayat, Professor of Health Economics and Health Insurance at the University of Indonesia and a member of the national …

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Health Technology Assessment proves a hit as almost 100 delegates attend sustainable resource allocation event in Accra

By Madeleine Stewart Sep. 30, 2018

Almost 100 delegates policy representatives from across Africa and Europe gathered in Accra, Ghana this month for a special event that focused on sustainable resource allocation policies for low and middle income countries (LMICs), co-hosted by iDSI and Health Technology Assessment international (HTAi). The two-day ‘Setting Priorities Fairly: Sustainable Policies for Effective Resource Allocation’ event, opened Ghana’s Deputy Minister for …

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60 seconds with… Dr Justice Nonvignon

By Madeleine Stewart Sep. 14, 2018

iDSI caught up with Dr Justice Nonvignon, a senior lecturer and health economist at the University of Ghana, ahead of a special event in Accra later this month that focuses on sustainable policies for effective resource allocation in Africa. As part of the two-day event, Justice will lead on a workshop session highlighting international case studies of Health Technology Assessment …

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WHO reports decreased local spending on health in presence of donor aid – so what does this mean?

By Laura Downey, Alec Morton, Private: Kalipso Chalkidou Jul. 27, 2017

Over the past decade there has been a noticeable shift in global health analyses from a macro focus on achievement of key metrics such as the Millennium (now Sustainable) Development Goals, to micro-level scrutiny of discrete aspects of health system functioning. One recent example is the WHO report “towards UHC – thinking public”, published online recently. This report explores the …

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More money is not always the answer to the ills of global health

By Laura Downey Jul. 25, 2017

Increasing the amount of money spent on health isn’t always the answer, especially in the absence of a system that can readily and effectively absorb additional funds. Laura Downey discusses this in the context of India in the following blog. According to an IndiaSpend analysis of 2017 Reserve Bank of India data on state budgets, nine of India’s poorest states …