Health Systems
To take up the challenge to address health systems is a little daunting, to say the least. The components are complex and numerous, and the breadth of work to be done enormous. WHO’s building blocks of health systems strengthening are service delivery, health workforce, information, medical products, vaccines and technologies, financing, and leadership and governance. Alone, each piece is a challenging, but necessary component of a greater whole.
On the surface, it would seem that the key to improving health systems might be structures logistics, meeting supply and demand. But as this issue of GLOBAL HEALTH shows, at the core of health systems strengthening is people.
There is a need to foster a cadre of leaders across the globe to catalyze change. Building capacity on the ground to improve the flow of goods, services and information is a crucial component for most developing countries. Newer buildings, fancier equipment and access to information technology are not a panacea for all that ail these crumbling systems. They merely facilitate the work that needs to be done.
Also, perhaps most notably, the global health community needs to address the issues of health care workers – from training to compensation to migration. It has often been a lightning rod for great debate, but the topic of health workers is, perhaps, the most complicated and arguably the most important of all if any system is to be sustainable.
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The Editors
Features
Health Worker Migration: Disease or Symptom?
Do health workers who leave developing countries, and the organizations that hire them, cause death?
Greater than the Sum
Information Technology and Health Systems Strengthening
In-Country Supply Chains
Why are they the weakest link in the health system?
Leadership and Management
The New Prescription for Health Systems Strengthening?
Health System’s Levers
Global health community shifts focus to health strengthening
The Road Not Taken
The role of transportation in global health systems
The Making of Anatomy of a Pandemic: A PBS Documentary
How was the H1N1 film created?
Online Exclusives
Hot Escapes
Jessica Mack explores Bocas del Toro, Panama
Going Viral
What's the buzz on YouTube, Facebook and other places online
Dim Sum
A collection of film picks, book reviews, and other items of note in the global health field
Field Notes
Laurel Lundstrom on a project providing grants to reduce maternal and infant mortality in Indonesia
