Development and validation of situational judgement test for assessment of behavioural competencies required for effective medical practice in Nigeria.

Background: The personal qualities of health workers determine the way health services are provided to clients. Some key personal qualities (also called behavioural competencies) of physicians that contribute to quality healthcare delivery include ethical responsibility, empathy, patient-centeredness, diligence, good judgment, respectful, teamwork, team leadership/conflict management, ability to take correction and tolerance. In this study, we developed and validated clinical scenarios (dilemmas) for assessing priority behavioural competencies for medical practice in Nigeria.

Predicting high blood pressure using machine learning models in low- and middle-income countries.

Responding to the rising global prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) requires improvements in the management of high blood pressure. Therefore, this study aims to develop an explainable machine learning model for predicting high blood pressure, a key NCD risk factor, using data from the STEPwise approach to NCD risk factor surveillance (STEPS) surveys. Nationally representative samples of adults aged 18-69 years were acquired from 57 countries spanning six World Health Organization (WHO) regions.

Adjustments in purchasing arrangements to support the COVID-19 health sector response: evidence from eight middle-income countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered several changes in countries' health purchasing arrangements to accompany the adjustments in service delivery in order to meet the urgent and additional demands for COVID-19-related services. However, evidence on how these adjustments have played out in low- and middle-income countries is scarce. This paper provides a synthesis of a multi-country study of the adjustments in purchasing arrangements for the COVID-19 health sector response in eight middle-income countries (Armenia, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Philippines, Romania and Ukraine).

The TB Surge intervention: an optimized approach to TB case-finding in Nigeria.

Introduction: TB remains one of the leading causes of death in Nigeria, and despite progress in treatment coverage, a 56% gap in national case notifications remains. This gap is attributable in part to underdiagnosis due to missed cases in health facilities. The TB Surge intervention presented an opportunity to address barriers to optimal case detection in public health facilities.