Health Systems 20/20 at Prince Mahidol Award Conference in Thailand
Feb 27 2012
During the 2012 Prince Mahidol Award Conference in Bangkok, Health Systems 20/20 staff joined representatives from governments, the private sector, academia, development partners, and civil society to discuss one of the most complex issues on the global health agenda—universal health coverage.
“Given the rich context on universal health coverage, the time has come to share the country experiences and challenges on financing reforms and to push this momentum forward in order to effectively translate good policy intention into concrete actions in accelerating towards universal health coverage,” a statement on the conference website reads. Conference organizers were particularly interested in health systems strengthening, calling it “the foundation and prerequisite to successful universal health coverage.”
At the conference Health Systems 20/20’s senior analyst, Douglas Glandon, presented the project’s National Health Accounts Production Tool. This innovative tool facilitates the production of National Health Account (NHA) estimates, which provide health sector leaders with data that can be used to inform resource allocation decisions and advocate for increasing health spending. See the presentation below.
The Production Tool is expected to make NHA estimations easier and cheaper to produce, while increasing the quality of the data. With the reduced need for international technical assistance, local staff will manage more of the estimation process, which is a key part of building country ownership over the NHA.
During the annual conference, the King of Thailand bestows the Prince Mahidol Award on individuals or institutions for innovative work in the fields of medicine and public health. The 2011 winners (recognized during the January 2012 conference) are Aaron T. Beck, Dr. David T. Wong, and Dr. Ruth F. Bishop.
