HSR Group

Implementation Science a Facet of Recent Global Symposium on Health Systems Research

ByURC Staff

The 2022 Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR) in Bogota, Colombia, sparked discussions about implementation science’s role in streamlined and equitable health systems. A panelist in an organized session on people-centered health systems, Dr. Rochelle Burgess of the Institute for Global Health at University College London emphasized how governments, agencies, and institutions must change how we define research: Who generates it? Who can access it? How is it used? “We have to see this space as one of co-creating and co-designing. We have to create a shared vision of what matters to communities,” she said.

Dr. Victoria Ngo, City University of New York, moderates a session on mental health and psychosocial support interventions at the 2023 Health Systems Research Symposium.
Dr. Dilys Walker, University of California, San Francisco, shared a poster entitled “Respectful Maternal Care Among Health Workers in Malawi: A Quantitative Analysis of Self-Reported Experience and Practice.”

This is the mentality that has driven ISC partners when conducting their five studies on the effectiveness and implementation of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) interventions.  In an organized session at HSR, several ISC partners presented evidence on the effectiveness of community-based psychosocial support interventions in trauma-exposed populations in six countries and their MHPSS policy implications. Dr. Victoria Ngo, City University of New York, and Dr. Arturo Harker, Universidad de los Andes, moderated the session, which feature findings from community-based psychosocial support interventions in the following countries (presenters are noted):

  • Uganda: Flora Cohen, Washington University at St. Louis, and Gary Agaba, TPO Uganda
  • Colombia: Leah James, HAI, and Nicolas Garcia, Universidad de los Andes
  • Panama and Ecuador: Claire Greene, Columbia University
  • Bangladesh: Karine Le Roch, Action Contre la Faim, and Sarah Murray, Johns Hopkins University
  • Jordan: Alexandra Bleile, War Child Holland 

Afterwards, CUNY presented findings from the ISC MHPSS Learning Collaborative and Universidad de los Andes moderated a panel and Q&A. The discussion focused on the sustainability of the presented interventions as well as lessons learned across studies on MHPSS implementation.