Making doctors stay: Rethinking doctor retention policy in a contracted-out primary healthcare setting in urban Bangladesh.

Background: "Contracting Out" is a popular strategy to expand coverage and utilization of health services. Bangladesh began contracting out primary healthcare services to NGOs in urban areas through the Urban Primary Health Care Project (UPHCP) in 1998. Over the three phases of this project, retention of trained and skilled human resources, especially doctors, proved to be an intractable challenge.

Modelling improved efficiency in healthcare referral systems for the urban poor using a geo-referenced health facility data: the case of Sylhet City Corporation, Bangladesh.

Background: An effective referral system is critical to ensuring access to appropriate and timely healthcare services. In pluralistic healthcare systems such as Bangladesh, referral inefficiencies due to distance, diversion to inappropriate facilities and unsuitable hours of service are common, particularly for the urban poor. This study explores the reported referral networks of urban facilities and models alternative scenarios that increase referral efficiency in terms of distance and service hours.

Healthcare seeking for chronic illness among adult slum dwellers in Bangladesh: A descriptive cross-sectional study in two urban settings.

Introduction: Accompanying rapid urbanization in Bangladesh are inequities in health and healthcare which are most visibly manifested in slums or low-income settlements. This study examines socioeconomic, demographic and geographic patterns of self-reported chronic illness and healthcare seeking among adult slum dwellers in Bangladesh. Understanding these patterns is critical in designing more equitable urban health systems and in enabling the country's goal of Universal Health Coverage by 2030.

Exploratory qualitative study to understand the underlying motivations and strategies of the private for-profit healthcare sector in urban Bangladesh.

Objectives: This paper explores the underlying motivations and strategies of formal small and medium-sized formal private for-profit sector hospitals and clinics in urban Bangladesh and their implications for quality and access.

Methods: This exploratory qualitative study was conducted in Dhaka, Sylhet and Khulna City Corporations. Data collection methods included key informant interviews (20) with government and private sector leaders, in-depth interviews (30) with clinic owners, managers and providers and exit interviews (30) with healthcare clients.

Contracting-out urban primary health care in Bangladesh: a qualitative exploration of implementation processes and experience.

Background: Contracting-out (CO) to non-state providers is used widely to increase access to health care, but it entails many implementation challenges. Using Bangladesh's two decades of experience with contracting out Urban Primary Health Care (UPHC), this paper identifies contextual, contractual, and actor-related factors that require consideration when implementing CO in Low- and Middle- Income Countries.

Methods: This qualitative case-study is based on 42 in-depth interviews with past and present stakeholders working with the government and the UPHC project, as well as a desk review of key project documents.

Trends and determinants of inequities in childhood stunting in Bangladesh from 1996/7 to 2014.

Background: We explore long-term trends and determinants of socioeconomic inequities in chronic childhood undernutrition measured by stunting among under-five children in Bangladesh. Given that one in three children remain stunted in Bangladesh, the socioeconomic mapping of stunting prevalence may be critical in designing public policies and interventions to eradicate childhood undernutrition.

Methods: Six rounds of Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey data are utilized, spanning the period 1996/97 to 2014.

Lateralization for Processing Facial Emotions in Gay Men, Heterosexual Men, and Heterosexual Women.

This study tested whether male sexual orientation and gender nonconformity influenced functional cerebral lateralization for the processing of facial emotions. We also tested for the effects of sex of poser and emotion displayed on putative differences. Thirty heterosexual men, 30 heterosexual women, and 40 gay men completed measures of demographic variables, recalled childhood gender nonconformity (CGN), IQ, and the Chimeric Faces Test (CFT).