Drawing on an in-depth analysis of eight global health networks, a recent essay in this journal argued that global health networks face four challenges to their effectiveness: problem definition, positioning, coalition-building, and governance. While sharing the argument of the essay concerned, in this commentary, we argue that these analytical concepts can be used to explicate a concept that h...

Background Ongoing conflict and systematic targeting of health facilities and personnel by the Syrian regime in opposition-controlled areas have contributed to health system and governance mechanisms collapse. Health directorates (HDs) were established in opposition-held areas in 2014 by the interim (opposition) Ministry of Health (MoH), to meet emerging needs. As the local health authori...

background and objectives: the iranian ministry of health and medical education has introduced clinical gov­ernance as the accepted model of hospital healthcare improvement. subsequently, a growing movement for implementing clinical governance in health facilities has emerged. this study aimed to explore the opinions of the relevant experts and executives to provide insight into current challen...

in his perspective “navigating between stealth advocacy and unconscious dogmatism: the challenge of researching the norms, politics and power of global health,” ooms argues that actions taken in the field of global health are dependent not only on available resources, but on the normative premise that guides how these resources are spent. this comment sets out how the application of a predomina...

public health instruments have been under constant development and renewal for decades. international legal instruments, with their binding character and strength, have a special place in this development. the start of the 21st century saw, in particular, the birth of the first world health organization (who)-era health treaties – the who framework convention on tobacco control (who fctc) and i...

in this commentary, we endorse concerns about the health impact of the trans-pacific partnership (tpp), paying particular attention to its mechanisms for investor state dispute settlement. we then describe the different, judgeled approach being advocated by the european commission team negotiating the trans-atlantic trade and investment partnership, arguing that, while not perfect, it offers si...

health systems research aims to understand the governance of health systems (i.e. how health systems function and perform and how their actors interact with each other). this can be achieved by applying innovative methodologies and concepts that are going to capture the complexity and dynamics of health systems when they are affected by shocks. the capacity of health systems to adapt to shocks ...

rlabonté et al entitle their paper in this issue of the international journal of health policy and management “the trans-pacific partnership: is it everything we feared for health?” tantalisingly, they do not directly answer the question they pose, and in this commentary, we suggest that it is the wrong question; we should not ‘fear’ the trans-pacific partnership (tpp) at all, rather we should ...

BACKGROUND With the exception of key 'proven successes' in global health, the current regime of global health governance can be understood as transnational and national actors pursuing their own interests under a rational actor model of international cooperation, which fails to provide sufficient justification for an obligation to assist in meeting the health needs of others. An ethical commitm...