Category Archives: Public Health

Global Health, Operational research, Public Health

SORT-IT initiative outcomes

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The Union reported on three publications about the results of the SORT-IT initiative

  • After the courses, 62% of participants completed a new research project; 50% published another paper; and 43% facilitated at other operational research courses.  A significant proportion of participants continue to engage in operational research after completing a course, providing evidence of the long-term value of this capacity building model.
  • 74% of the studies produced a reported effect that included changes to programme implementation, adaptation of monitoring tools and changes to existing guidelines.

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Access to care, Global Health, Operational research, Public Health, Research

SORT-IT: public health professionals are asking for it!

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When I started writing in this blog I posted a couple of notes related to the development of operational research. A few month later, here I am with a success story!

SORT-IT  (Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative) is a training model designed by The Union and MSF, who joined with the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases(TDR) at the World Health Organization (WHO) to work toward spreading  operational research skills, in order to encourage public health professionals all over the world (and especially in developing countries) to design, implement and publish research outcomes capable to feed national health programs and thus improve health services for people all over the world.

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Ramsay, Harries, Zachariah et al.,The Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative for public health programmes,  Health Action, vol. 4 no. 2, published 21 June 2014

Access to care, Global Health, Public Health, Research

Increasing the use of VCT for HIV through a better education of the general population

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Researchers looked at the perception of Kenyan women about voluntary counseling and testing for HIV. Fear of stigma, especially targeting women, is the main reason for not submitting to VCT.

In order to generalize the use of VCT and thus to provide treatment to the ones in need, there should be more emphasis put on education for the general population about HIV.

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Access to care, Inequalities in Health, Public Health, Quality of care, Research

Le renoncement aux soins: un patient sur 10 concerné en Suisse Romande

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La troisième session de la formation continue “Migration et Santé”, organisée par la PMU a abordé ce sujet qui a été relayé dans plusieurs médias suisses romands, suite aux résultats de l’étude CERESO, portant sur le renoncement aux soins pour des raisons économiques.

Ainsi,  sur la base de questionnaires distribués à 2030 patients dans 47 cabinets médicaux de Suisse romande, l’étude a pu mettre en évidence que 1 patient sur 10 a du renoncer à des soins médicaux (y compris soins dentaires) pour des raisons économiques au cours de l’année précédente.

 Ainsi, «Durant les douze derniers mois, avez-vous eu de la peine à payer les factures de votre ménage ?» est la question-clé qui va permettre au médecin (et aux autres soignants) d’ ouvrir la porte à la discussion avec le patient, concernant son éventuelle difficulté à accéder aux soins nécessaires pour des raisons financières.

Article: Bodenmann, P. et al. (2014). Renoncement aux soins : comment appréhender cette réalité en médecine de premier recours?. Rev Med Suisse, 10, 2258-63.

Global Health, Operational research, Public Health, Research

Promoting operational research

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Field Research is MSF research’s website publishing operational research that was carried out in MSF’s projects around the world. access Field research.

MSF and The Union (International Union against Tuberculosis and pulmonary diseases) started a collaboration aiming at promote operational research, defined as “The science of doing better”  for low income countries.

The goal is to use data that are collected routinely in health care facilities and turn them into results that will improve health care delivery, diagnosis and patient treatment.