The inaugural Consultation of the Collaboration for Applied Health Research and Delivery (CAHRD), has concluded and three cross cutting themes have been identified as a main focus for future work.
The first of these cross cutting themes is sustained and expansive collaboration to look at research objectives, policy guidelines and implementation at the community level of health systems. The second is ensuring that health systems are responsive to the changes that will occur in the next 10-20 years, acknowledging that what is expensive in health systems today, such as drugs and diagnostics will, in 10-20 years’ time, be the less expensive side of the equation whereas time, of both the provider and the patient will be at a premium. The third is that there needs to be work to look beyond conventional funding streams and try to identify more innovative funding opportunities, such as carbon credits.
Theconclusions came at the end of the two day consultation meeting, which saw nearly 200 delegates travel to Liverpool from 15 countries across Europe, Africa and Asia. Throughout the Consultation the delegates took part in discussions focussed on four work streams: Lung Health (LH); Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH); Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) and Health Systems (HS). On Friday morning former ITV and BBC news presenter, Peter Sissons, moderated a “Question Time” debate with 10 delegates made up of researchers as well as representatives from funding bodies, health ministries and health institutions across the world.
Professor Bertie Squire, Director of CAHRD said: “It is important that we start to look at the similarities between health systems in high income countries and those in low or middle income countries and focus less on the differences. CAHRD will continue to develop novel, integrated ways to look at health service delivery. With that in mind I am really looking forward to future Consultations, especially those that will be held in developing countries.”
CAHRD, coordinated by LSTM, is a global network that combines individuals, disciplines and organisations and facilities both Applied Health Research and Delivery of health interventions. The network’s vision is a healthy future for low and middle income populations. The objective of this inaugural consultation was to set the strategic direction of the network, providing opportunities for the collaboration to continue across the four work stream areas and beyond until the next biennial meeting.
Mwele Malecela, Director General of the National Institute for Medical Research, Tanzania, said: “CAHRD is an excellent example of delivering policy and research in collaboration with Global South partners.”
Work will continue within the network until the next biennial consultation in 2016, which will be hosted by The University of Warwick. For more information about the CAHRD network please visit their website.