Assessing health program performance in low- and middle-income countries: building a feasible, credible, and comprehensive framework.

Background: Many health service delivery models are adapting health services to meet rising demand and evolving health burdens in low- and middle-income countries. While innovative private sector models provide potential benefits to health care delivery, the evidence base on the characteristics and impact of such approaches is limited. We have developed a performance measurement framework that provides credible (relevant aspects of performance), feasible (available data), and comparable (across different organizations) metrics that can be obtained for private health services organizations that operate in resource-constrained settings.

Trans-national scale-up of services in global health.

Background: Scaling up innovative healthcare programs offers a means to improve access, quality, and health equity across multiple health areas. Despite large numbers of promising projects, little is known about successful efforts to scale up. This study examines trans-national scale, whereby a program operates in two or more countries.

Using archetypes to design services for high users of healthcare.

A subset of people with complex health and social needs account for the majority of healthcare costs in Ontario. There is broad agreement that better solutions for these patients could lead to better health outcomes and lower costs, but we have few tools to design services around their diverse needs. Predictive modelling may help determine numbers of high users, but design methods such as user archetypes may offer important ways of understanding how to meet their needs.

Knowledge transfer and translation: examining how teratogen information is disseminated.

Background: Well-executed knowledge transfer and translation (KT) has become a vital part of effective health management. Following the thalidomide disaster, women and their health care providers became fearful of medications and environmental exposures that could affect the health of the unborn child. Therefore, it is important to disseminate evidenced-based information to pregnant women and their health care providers, enabling them to make empowered decisions regarding exposures during pregnancy.