Publications

The HIFA Steering Group is delighted to announce the publication in BMJ Global Health of our new paper (open access):  

Universal access to essential health information: accelerating progress towards universal health coverage and other SDG health targets

authored by three HIFA steering group members (Geof Royston, Chris Zielinski and Neil Pakenham-Walsh). 

The paper highlights the following points:

• Effective people-centred health care requires the public, carers and frontline health workers to have timely access to reliable, practical, health information (we term this essential health information), yet in many parts of the world this is often difficult for people to obtain.  
• Universal access to essential health information is therefore a prerequisite for, and indeed a key component of, universal health coverage (UHC), yet this fundamental role for UHC of access to essential health information appears to have been largely neglected - for example it does not feature in thhe Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) UHC target or associated indicators.
• There is growing evidence of the impact of wider access to practical, actionable, information about health and how this could accelerate the achievement of UHC and other SDG health targets.
• Achieving universal access to essential health information is becoming increasingly feasible and affordable, not least due to the global spread of modern communication technology, but progress is being held back by a glaring lack of high-level political and financial commitment.
• All stakeholders need to work together to accelerate progress towards universal access to essential health information; a catalyst for this would be the inclusion of universal access to essential health information in the relevant SDG target and associated monitoring indicators for UHC, a step that WHO could usefully endorse.

This was a huge collective effort led by Chris Smith of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Nagasaki University, and supported by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science and HIFA. We screened over 60,000 papers, of which 23 met our inclusion criteria. The findings confirm 'a lack of up-to-date and relevant medicine information in low and lower middle-income settings'.

CITATION: How primary healthcare workers obtain information during consultations to aid safe prescribing in low-income and lower middle-income countries: a systematic review. Chris Smith, Michelle Helena van Velthoven, Nguyen Duc Truong, Nguyen Hai Nam, VÅ© Phan Anh, Tareq Mohammed Ali AL-Ahda, Osama Gamal Hassan, Basel Kouz, Nguyen Tien Huy, Malcolm Brewster, Neil Pakenham-Walsh. BMJ Global Health 2020;5:e002094. Published on 2nd April 2020

There can be no area of health more important than access to reliable information to inform prescribing, no area of health that ios more perverted by commercial interests, and no area of health that presents such an important and growing existential threat to human existence (the predicted post-antibiotic apocalypse). This paper serves as a vital baseline assessment/situation analysis on which we can build future advocacy and action towards our shared goal: A world where every prescriber and user of medicines will have access to independent, reliable, understandable information on the full range of commonly prescribed medicines ­ and will know where to find iit.

The HIFA Prescribers and Users of Medicines expert working group is seeking low-level sponsorship to take our work forward. If you, or someone you know, can help, please contact the HIFA Coordinator, Neil Pakenham-Walsh: neil@hifa.org

Our editorial 'Healthcare information for all', co-authored with Fiona Godlee (Editor-in-Chief, BMJ), was published in The BMJ on 28 February 2020.

This editorial was prompted by the recent official statement on 'Healthcare Information For All' by the World Medical Association, which represents more than 10 million doctors worldwide.

Note that the editorial ends with a call to action: "Action is now needed to take these recommendations forward. HIFA plans to establish a multidisciplinary working group to assess, act, and monitor progress on each recommendation. The group will include representatives from WMA, the BMA and other national medical associations, WHO, and other providers and users of healthcare information."

https://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000352

This editorial by CHIFA lead moderator Tony Waterston and HIFA coordinator Neil Pakenham-Walsh discusses the achievements of CHIFA and opportunities for the future to accelerate progress towards the CHIFA vision: A world where every child, every parent and every health worker has access to the health information they need to protect their own health and the health of children for whom they are responsible.

The achievement of CHIFA to date is remarkable considering the low level of resources and the reliance on volunteer input. CHIFA seeks additional funding to expand the network and broaden its work in the following ways:

  *   Strengthen the role of country representatives

  *   Expand the role of supporting organisations

  *   Develop specific topics for project work similar to the Newborn Care project

  *   Evaluate the benefits to users

  *   Host a regular programme of webinars

  *   Collaborate more closely with WHO and other agencies.

HIFA Coordinator HIFA, Dr Neil Pakenham-Walsh, talks to eHealth News about HIFA’s vision of enabling universal access to healthcare information.

Geoff Royston (Adviser, mHIFA) Healthcare Information For All? Assessing mobile healthcare information applications for citizens in low-resource settings

Royston G, Hagar C, Long L, McMahon D, Pakenham-Walsh N, Wadhwani N on behalf of the mHIFA Working Group. Mobile health-care information for all: a global challenge. The Lancet Global Health July 2015, Volume 3, No. 7, e356–e357

Manila Declaration 2015

O O Owolabi, Claire Glenton, Simon Lewin and Neil Pakenham-Walsh. Stakeholder views on the incorporation of traditional birth attendants into the formal health systems of low-and middle-income countries: a qualitative analysis of the HIFA2015 and CHILD2015 email discussion forums. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 2014, 14:118 doi:10.1186/1471-2393-14-118

Hagar C & Kartzinel H. Mobile Healthcare Information for All by 2015: Preliminary findings and future direction. Information Development 2014

Full text (post-print version)

Soumyadeep Bhaumik, Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Pranab Chatterjee, Tamoghna Biswas. Governments are legally obliged to ensure adequate access to health information. The Lancet Global Health, Volume 1, Issue 3, Pages e129 – e130, September 2013

Land M & Pakenham-Walsh N. Access to health information under international human rights law. 2012 (White Paper in collaboration with New York Law School)

Also available on Academia

Sophie Cooper. The Importance of Information: the HIFA2015 campaign and South Africa. 2011. Dissertation for BA (Hons) Media and Cultural Studies.

Pakenham-Walsh N & Bukachi F. Information needs of health care workers in developing countries: a literature review with a focus on Africa. Human Resources for Health 2009, 7:30doi:10.1186/1478-4491-7-30

Pakenham-Walsh N. Healthcare Information for All by 2015: a community of purpose facilitated by Reader-Focused Moderation. Knowledge Management for Development Journal, Vol 3, No 1. 2007

https://www.km4djournal.org/index.php/km4dj/article/view/96

Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Frederick Bukachi, Rachel Stancliffe, Ibrahima Bob. Healthcare Information For All by 2015. BMJ 19 October 2006

Godlee F, Pakenham-Walsh N, Ncayiyana D, Cohen B, Packer A. Can we achieve health information for all by 2015? The Lancet 2004;364(9430):295-300

Letter of support from the World Health Organization 2006 - received in support of the launch of the HIFA campaign in Mombasa, Kenya, 2006

Editorial: Meeting the information needs of health workers in developing countries 
BMJ 1997; 314 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.314.7074.90 (Published 11 January 1997) Cite this as: BMJ 1997;314:90
Neil PakenhamWalsh, Carol Priestley, Richard Smith.

ICN-HIFA Positive Practice Environments: Meeting the information needs of health professionals