Nicholas Mays - Böcker

As we approach the 25th anniversary of the first recognition of HIV/AIDS in 1981, this book reflects on the international impact of the disease. It has persistently remained a global issue, with more than 50 million people worldwide estimated to have been infected since that date. This ambitious book, written by 165 authors from 30 countries, offers a multi-country comparative study that examines how the response to the common, global threat of HIV is shaped by the history, culture, institutions and health systems of the individual countries affected.Increasingly the shift of health systems has been from prevention only as the main containment strategy, to a strategy that includes scaling up HIV treatment, and care and prevention services, including antiretroviral therapy. Thus, all parts of the health system must be involved; policy makers, healthcare professionals and users of the services have been forced to think differently about how services are financed, how resources are allocated, how systems are structured and organized, how services are delivered to patients, and how the resulting activity is monitored and evaluated in order to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, equity and acceptability of the response.This book is unique in attempting to describe and assess a range of responses across the globe by situating them within the characteristics of each country and its health system. Most chapters combine a health policy expert with an HIV specialist, allowing both a 'top down' health system approach and a 'bottom up' HIV-specific perspective. There are thematic and analytical sections, which provide an overview and some suggestions for solutions to the most serious outstanding issues, and chapters which analyse specific country and organisational responses. There is no perfect health system, but the evidence provided here allows the sharing of knowledge, and a opportunity to assess the impact and reactions, to an epidemic that must be considered a long term issue.

A quarter of a century since the first recognition of HIV/AIDS in 1981, this book reflects on the international impact of the disease. It has persistently remained a global issue, with more than 50 million people worldwide estimated to have been infected since that date. This ambitious book, written by 165 authors from 30 countries, offers a multi-country comparative study that examines how the response to the common, global threat of HIV is shaped by the history, culture, institutions and health systems of the individual countries affected.Increasingly the shift of health systems has been from prevention only as the main containment strategy, to a strategy that includes scaling up HIV treatment, and care and prevention services, including antiretroviral therapy. Thus, all parts of the health system must be involved; policy makers, healthcare professionals and users of the services have been forced to think differently about how services are financed, how resources are allocated, how systems are structured and organized, how services are delivered to patients, and how the resulting activity is monitored and evaluated in order to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, equity and acceptability of the response.This book is unique in attempting to describe and assess a range of responses across the globe by situating them within the characteristics of each country and its health system. Most chapters combine a health policy expert with an HIV specialist, allowing both a 'top down' health system approach and a 'bottom up' HIV-specific perspective. There are thematic and analytical sections, which provide an overview and some suggestions for solutions to the most serious outstanding issues, and chapters which analyse specific country and organisational responses. There is no perfect health system, but the evidence provided here allows the sharing of knowledge, and a opportunity to assess the impact and reactions, to an epidemic that must be considered a long term issue.

Every year a vast number of research studies and a myriad of other forms of ‘evidence’ are produced that have potential to inform policy and practice. Synthesis provides a way of bringing together diverse kinds of evidence to bridge the so called ‘gap’ between evidence and policy.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the range of approaches and methods available for synthesising qualitative and quantitative evidence and a detailed explanation of why this is important. It does this by:

Looking at the different types of review and examining the place of synthesis in reviews for policy and management decision making Describing the process of conducting and interpreting syntheses Suggesting questions which can be used to assess the quality of a synthesis Synthesising Qualitative and Quantitative Health Evidence is essential reading for students and professional researchers who need to assemble and synthesise findings and insights from multiple sources. It is also relevant to policy makers and practitioners in the field of health, and those working in other areas of social and public policy.

“This is the best textbook on health policy.”Prof Uta Lehmann, Director, School of Public Health, University of Western Cape, South Africa“The third edition of this excellent text reinforces its position as the best text that applies public policy concepts and theories to health policy.”Prof Martin Powell, Professor of Health and Social Policy, School of Social Policy, University of Birmingham, UK“This book is essential reading for anyone wanting guidance on managing the politics of the health policy process.”Prof Jeremy Shiffman, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Health Policy, Johns Hopkins University, USADescribed as the best book in its field, this extensively updated third edition of Making Health Policy provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of health policy, its political nature and its processes at country and global levels. Written by a large and diverse group of leading experts, this clear and accessible book addresses the “how” of health policy making in a range of settings.This fully revised edition:• Responds to the movement to ‘decolonise’ and broaden the practice of global health and its related scholarship• Provides new examples of health policy processes that bring additional theoretical perspectives and empirical studies from researchers outside North America and Europe• Responds to developments in health policy such as the ecological crisis, the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of social media as well as having greater treatment of policy related to the social and commercial determinants of health• Includes new chapters on the role of the values that underpin health policy debates and on how local policy is shaped by national, regional and global influences and organisations.Making Health Policy is the ideal resource for students of public health and health policy, public health practitioners and policy makers.Authors: Kent Buse, Nicholas Mays, Manuela Colombini, Alec Fraser, Mishal Khan and Helen Walls.Understanding Public Health is an innovative series published by Open University Press in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where it is used as a key learning resource for postgraduate programmes. It provides self-directed learning covering the major issues in public health affecting low-, middle- and high-income countries. Series Editors: Rosalind Plowman and Nicki Thorogood.