Exploring a need to know

Citation

Birnbaum, D. and Decker, M. (2018), "Exploring a need to know", International Journal of Health Governance, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 262-263. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHG-12-2018-070

Exploring a need to know

During this year’s annual Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) meeting, we asked our EAB members to identify topics they would like to read about to inform decisions related to challenges they currently face. Based upon this recent exploration of the information needs of our readership, over the coming year IJHG will give priority to manuscripts for regular issues on the following topics:

• Migrant/refugee health issues – covering those seeking asylum, displaced persons and families inside refugee camps; addressing policy needs across the cities and countries that are faced with massive influx of documented and undocumented migrants; as well as looking at the continuum from refugee to citizen, models for managing this transition and facilitating social inclusion. The future manuscripts could review the health-related implications of different policy approaches (e.g. epidemiological and sociological implications on communicable diseases, mental health, development of unhealthy behavior, etc.). Additional possible approaches include addressing inequity, ensuring due process, profiling model programs, etc., or focusing solely on experience from noteworthy model programs that could provide a successful example for others to follow.

• Indigenous population issues – topics relevant to Aboriginal communities in Australia, Maori communities in NZ, Inuit communities in Northern Canada, First American communities in Canada and the USA, Indian communities in Central and South America (focusing on strength-based models emerging in different geographies). Approaches include focusing on experience from noteworthy model programs that could provide a successful example of establishing respect from the dominant colonizing culture, acknowledging and supporting indigenous peoples as fully able to decide their own health needs in harmony with their own cultural beliefs, etc.

• Governance of pre-service education – the need for a clinical governance lens on the interface between educators and clinicians, balancing “job readiness” with the more modern expectations of teaching institutes, addressing gaps in interaction between education administrators and clinical leaders as well as consideration of regulatory measures that may or may not help bridge that disconnect.

• Addressing health disparities – including improved governance to tackle social inequities in access to healthcare and health.

• Governance of innovation – potential of low-cost technological innovations in transformational changes that could enable health systems in LMIC countries to make rapid progress on expanding access to effective and affordable health services, especially for the poor; the potential of digital health for transforming access to effective and affordable health services vs its potential to reinforce existing inequalities; novel ways to advance truly informed and certificated processes of two-way patient-participation-oriented shared decision making (e.g. Washington State’s Shared Decision-Making Policy, an early adopter of a certification process for patient decision aids, as reported by Pope and Lessler, 2017).

Additionally, we look forward to receiving submissions to our 2019 theme issue, which will be published in the fourth quarter. Our Guest Editors for this special issue are Josée Lavoie, PhD (Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences; Director, Ongomiizwin – Research (formerly known as MFN – Centre for Aboriginal Health Research), Indigenous Institute of Health & Healing, University of Manitoba) and Lisa Schilling, RN, MPH (Vice President, Quality and Care Delivery Effectiveness, Kaiser Permanente, National Quality Care Management Institute). The theme title is “Engagement and accountability with your community.”

Theme issue – apart from research to inform quality improvement, many healthcare organizations such as hospitals, primary care clinics, HMOs and regional health boards are implementing mechanisms to engage with their surrounding communities. Similarly, academic institutions are responding to increasing requirements that their researchers improve accountability and collaboration with communities they wish to study. Several indigenous communities and patient advocacy groups also have established their own engagement processes to ensure that proposed projects respect linguistic, cultural and service needs of their community members. Although the need to develop the scholarship around models of meaningful community, citizen and patient governance of the health service research process has been well stated, few studies disclose the process adopted in any detail.

This special issue aims to:

• bring together the literature surrounding community, citizen and patient engagement;

• showcase models of effective patient/citizen/community governance over health service and healthcare quality improvement research; and

• critically explore benefits and challenges alike, for the research process, and for the uptake of findings.

Sharing lessons learned by exemplary programs could benefit board and administrative leaders everywhere. Involving citizens and patients in planning, research and evaluation can produce better measurement and more transparent governance, leading to the intended public impact of a legitimate feeling of safety and trustworthiness. Sharing lessons and identifying knowledge gaps can assist in restructuring government and corporate responsibility to produce better health and service outcomes in communities.

Anticipated aspects include, but are not limited to:

• citizen, patient, staff and community engagement expectations or models;

• corporate and community impact of health service research governance models; and

• individual and community benefit in research participation; population/community health accountability.

Manuscript submissions can be made at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijhg (in the pull-down menus and your cover letter, please indicate submission to the theme issue rather than to a regular issue). Deadline for submissions is May 15, 2019, and author guidelines are available at: www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=ijhg