Assessing health system performance in low and middle income countries

Health resources should be allocated to aspects of health systems that are shown to have the most impact on improving health outcomes. Health System Performance (HSP) should then be measured. However, such studies are limited particularly in the context of Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs). This is coupled with various conceptual and methodological challenges associated with HSP Assessments (HSPA) worldwide.

This presentation focuses on the results of a comparative cross-country cluster analysis of health systems in LMICs and the key indicators used in assessing HSP for each health system building block identified by the World Health Organization (governance, financing, service delivery, workforce, medical products and technologies and health information systems). Using three data waves from the Health Systems database, the Demographic Health Surveys, the World Health Surveys and the Global Health Data Exchange, countries were classified according to their health systems performance. Geographical information systems were also used to identify priority areas for health system reforms and examine whether countries with more likely similar health system characteristics also achieve similar health outcomes.

Speaker

Erlyn Macarayan

PhD Candidate, Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland

Ms Macarayan is a PhD student at The University of Queensland's Institute for Social Science Research and was previously a visiting student at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, USA. She has received recognition in the field of global health, being selected as one of the emerging voices for global health at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp as well as Health Systems Global’s 2014 Young Leader in Global Health. She also received the Most Inspiring International Student of Australia award by the Council of International Students Australia (CISA) in 2014. Ms Macarayan has presented at various international conferences across Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe and North America.