Assessing the state of health research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region

Abstract

Member states across the Eastern Mediterranean region face unprecedented health challenges, buffeted by demographic change, a dual disease burden, rising health costs, and the effects of ongoing conflict and population movements - exacerbated in the near-term by instability arising from recent political upheaval in the Middle East. However, health actors in the region are not well positioned to respond to these challenges because of a dearth of good quality health research. This review presents an assessment of the current state of health research systems across the Eastern Mediterranean based on publicly available literature and data sources. The review finds that - while there have been important improvements in productivity in the Region since the early 1990s - overall research performance is poor with critical deficits in system stewardship, research training and human resource development, and basic data surveillance. Translation of research into policy and practice is hampered by weak institutional and financial incentives, and concerns over the political sensitivity of findings. These problems are attributable primarily to chronic under-investment - both financial and political - in Research and Development systems. This review identifies key areas for a regional strategy and how to address challenges, including increased funding, research capacity-building, reform of governance arrangements and sustained political investment in research support. A central finding is that the poverty of publicly available data on research systems makes meaningful cross-comparisons of performance within the EMR difficult. We therefore conclude by calling for work to improve understanding of health research systems across the region as a matter of urgency.

Science, a weapon of peace

“…1 In a separate paper, Haworth and others explain why the Hajj pilgrimage offers a unique opportunity to test the effectiveness of influenza prevention strategies that require a large sample size. 2 These issues may seem distant but focusing on advances in science and improvements in health can be a unifying force.…”

Health research institutional mapping: an Eastern Mediterranean Regional perspective

“…limited budgets for health research (6). Policy-makers in these countries may be also unaware of the importance of health research in improving health systems and public health, as reported by some respondents.…”

“…The tool was a modified version of tools used in previous regional/ global mapping exercises (3,6,(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15) and consisted of 6 sections, each comprising several questions on: background information; institutional characteristics; scope of research; training and capacity building; ethics, leadership and governance; and resources (human, financial and technical). In addition, participants were asked to provide narrative remarks reflecting challenges (national, financial, human resources and technical) faced when conducting research within their respective institutions.…”

“…Recent studies in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region have revealed that the performance of health systems research is weak across all sectors, including governance, finance, workforce, medical and other technology, health information and service delivery. Such studies have referred to critical deficits in stewardship and translation of research into policy and practice, and often absence of an identified research agenda based on emerging priorities (6)(7)(8). It should be emphasized that there were prior attempts for health research mapping in the Region, but such studies were not comprehensive and only involved some member states (9)(10)(11), or were of institutional (rather than national) scope (10).…”

A vision to strengthen resources and capacity of the Palestinian health research system: a qualitative assessment

“…This is certainly emphasized by the World Health Organization (WHO), which urges that mobilizing and sustaining the sufficient resources and required potentials (2) are important to generate high-quality knowledge to support evidence-informed decision-making (3). HRSRIC should be considered in any attempt to analyse the HRS, and this is clearly and fundamentally featured in conceptual HRS frameworks that help in better system understanding through a wide-range analysis approach (4)(5)(6), as other similar studies found (7)(8)(9). These frameworks portrayed the HRS fabric, including HRSRIC, which forms a solid base and an imperative priority for any HR advancement.…”