decentralization is the process of dispersing decision-making closer to the point of peripheral area, service or action. basically decentralized governance, if properly planned and implemented, offers important opportunities for enhanced human development. the studies about this issue in different countries show that most of the decentralizations have been implemented in european countries and ...

Background Healthcare stakeholders have a great interest in the adoption and use of electronic personal health records (ePHRs) because of the potential benefits associated with them. Little is known, however, about the level of adoption of ePHRs in Canada and there is limited evidence concerning their benefits and implications for the healthcare system. This study aimed to describe the current ...

introduction: information technology might have some potential effects, such as influencing treatment process, rate and easiness of information retrieval, and information availability for making clinical decisions based on conditions and management, educational and research activities on health service systems. recognizing these effects can be concerned as a foundation to strategic planning in ...

health reform is the outcome of dispersed policy initiatives in different sectors, at different levels and across time. policy work which can drive coherent health reform needs to operate across the governance structures as well as the institutions that comprise healthcare systems. building policy capacity to support health reform calls for clarity regarding the nature of such policy work and t...

background informal payments for health care, which are common in many countries, can have negative effects on health care access, equity and health status as they lead people to forgo or delay seeking care, or to sell assets to pay for care. many countries are putting reforms in place with the aim of reducing informal payments. in order to be successful, such policies should be informed by the...

background & aim: prenatal care is a key strategy for achieving public health goals, primary healthcare objectives, and the millennium development goals. the aim of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the use of prenatal care services in order to design suitable interventions and promote the use of these services. methods:in this systematic quantitative literature review, stud...

background in many parts of the world, ongoing deficiencies in health systems compromise the delivery of health interventions. the world health organization (who) identified four functions that health systems need to perform to achieve their goals: efforts to strengthen health systems focus on the way these functions are carried out. while a number of studies on health systems functions have be...

an electronic health record system (EHR) for years but figured that it would be too costly and disruptive to your practice to actually buy one. You suspected that it would slow you down and force you to interact more with a computer than with the patient in front of you. You assumed that EHRs made sense only for technophile types who didn’t mind typing or fiddling with programs, and you were ri...