News

	HIFA: Maintaining essential health services during the pandemic: Deep dive, 10 May-25 June 2021 Date: Wednesday, May 5, 2021 Starting on 10 May HIFA is hosting a 'deep-dive' exploration on how to maintain essential health services: reproductive health, child health, mental health, non-communicable diseases, surgery, emergency care. Throughout we shall include a focus on vulnerable people as well as the general population. These explorations will unfold week by week over 6 weeks, guided by an expert working group of representatives of WHO and other organisations. The work is supported by WHO.
	HIFA announces coordination team for Country Representatives Date: Saturday, April 3, 2021 / /-->*/
	Call for working group members: Learning for quality health services Date: Tuesday, March 9, 2021 Quality of health services is critical to achieving universal health coverage (UHC). Overall, between 5.7 and 8.4 million deaths are attributed to poor quality care each year in low- and middle-income countries, accounting for up to 15% of overall deaths in these countries. Improving access to health services must go hand-in-hand with improving the quality of these services. Further, poor quality health services - particularly unsafe care - can decrease people's trust in the health system.
	Tomislav Mestrovic (Croatia): HIFA Country Representative of the Year 2020 Date: Saturday, February 13, 2021 The HIFA Steering Group is delighted to announce the winners of our HIFA Country Representative of the Year 2020 awards. First we would like to say how grateful we are to all our 266 Country Representatives for their invaluable volunteer work for HIFA. The overall winner is: Tomislav Mestrovic (Croatia). Congratulations Tomislav! See the 3-minute HIFA YouTube video where Tomislav shares his experience.
	New HIFA project to promote sharing of experience and expertise around the maintenance of essential health services during (and after) the pandemic Date: Sunday, November 8, 2020 HIFA has launched a series of thematic discussions to promote cross country learning on the maintenance of essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, supported by the World Health Organization. We are holding a 4-week discussion in 4 languages, on the HIFA forums, starting 16 November 2020.
	HIFA Blog: Month in Review, July/August 2020 - “Simply getting people online will NOT solve the world's information problems” Date: Wednesday, September 9, 2020 Quote of the month: “WHO's new public information video to combat the infodemic concludes with the message: 'Spend less time online'. This is a resounding recognition of the fact that simply getting people online will NOT solve the world's information problems. Far from it: connectivity gives fuel to misinformation.” Neil Pakenham-Walsh, HIFA Coordinator
	HIFA Blog: Month in Review, June 2020 - “A matter of life and death for people unable to access essential healthcare information during the COVID-19 pandemic” Date: Monday, July 6, 2020 Quote of the month: “Managing the digital divide better has become a matter of life and death for people unable to access essential healthcare information during the COVID-19 pandemic.” António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
	HIFA Blog: Month in Review, May 2020 - More on Coronavirus and the cancer of misinformation Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2020 Quote of the month: “I honestly don’t think that we are past the peak of fake information. As long as the population is not well informed they will continue to believe fake information.” Kenny Garmendia, HIFA member, Medical doctor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras
	Combating digital health inequality in the time of coronavirus Date: Friday, June 12, 2020 In April 2020 HIFA collaborated with the International Federation of Library Associations (special interest group Evidence for Global and Disaster Health and the Health & Biosciences Libraries section) to complement a webinar on Thursday 23 April, 2020, on the theme of Combating digital health inequality in the time of coronavirus. In the 2 weeks leading up to the webinar, HIFA hosted a thematic discussion on the theme of the webinar.
	New paper: Universal access to essential health information Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2020 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: