Last year we held a major thematic discussion on Access to Health Research, which led to the Manila Declaration on the Availability and Use of Health Research Information in and for Low- and Middle-income Countries in the Asia Pacific Region (26 August 2015).
The Declaration asserted that 'all healthcare stakeholders (individuals, researchers, providers, professionals, leaders and policymakers) need seamless access to peer-reviewed research and information that are relevant to their respective contexts, and presented in a language they can understand'.
Over the coming months we shall explore in more depth four fundamental questions:
- How can health research from LMICs be made more accessible?
- What can be done to make research free/affordable to users in LMICs?
- How can research be made available in the right language?
- How can we improve access to different formats required by different users?
Over the next 4 weeks we shall explore Question 1:
How can health research from LMICs be made more accessible?
We shall review progress in the Asia Pacific Region since the Manila Declaration, and ask if other similar declarations are needed (or already in place) in other regions and globally.
We also propose to include a special focus on the information needs of disadvantaged and marginalised people in both low- and high-income countries (eg people with low literacy, people with disabilities, aboriginal people in Australia and minorities in other countries).
The discussion will start on Monday 6 June on the HIFA forum. Please forward this message to your networks and colleagues and invite them to join us here.
Please send your contributions to hifa@dgroups.org
With thanks, Neil Pakenham-Walsh (HIFA Coordinator)
On behalf of the HIFA Access to Health Research working group.
