[Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/who-launch-event-measuring-and-monitori... ]
I sent the above announcement also to CHIFA, our sister forum on global child health and rights (www.chifa.org), and I am forwarding below a response from Massimo Serventi, who has been working as a paediatrician in Africa and Asia since the 1980s.
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Dear Neil and friends, My comment on the coming event and webinar about 'measuring and monitoring quality of care' is that... it will be useless. I do live in Tanzania, where for the past 40 years I've repeatedly heard emphasising the importance of 'measuring and monitoring. Ink on paper, words of commitment, conferences, webinar abond from years on this aspect of public health. I add that African countries (yes, 56 of them) do have their own measuring & monitoring way of proceeding, a way that is totally political(!) in its intrinsic essence. Lessons from outside have little impact on the field.
Greetings from Dodoma
Massimo
CHIFA Profile: Massimo Serventi is a long-standing Pediatrician working in Africa since 1982. He currently works on a volunteer basis in an excellent missionary/credited hospital in north Uganda, St. Mary's Hospital-Lacor-GULU. He has worked for several NGOs in 6 African/2 Asian countries. His interests include clinical and community pediatrics, adherence to clinical guidelines and school education as the major determinant of good health.
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There are two questions here: the value of monitoring quality of care, and the (mis)interpretation of results for political ends (for example, perhaps, to exaggerate positive trends in health outcomes). The first would seem to be desirable in any context, but only if the observers use the right approach and avoid bias (political or other); the second needs objective assessment - are you aware of any studies on this topic?
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org