Approaches to health research priority setting in the Philippines across the years

@#<p><strong>BACKGROUND:</strong> As one of the research councils under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), health research priority setting has been the mandate of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) since its establishment in 1982. The development of the National Unified Health Research Agenda (NUHRA) convenes the major stakeholders for health in the country to establish the priorities for health research. The NUHRA aims to address the most urgent health issues in the country for the generation of solutions to the health concerns of the country.</p><p><strong>OBJECTIVES AND METHOD:</strong> Through document review, this paper describes the approaches and lessons learned in research priority setting since the establishment of the Philippine National Health Research System.</p><p><strong>RESULTS:</strong> The Philippines has employed a bottoms-up, top-down, and a combination of both approaches to develop its health research agenda.</p><p><strong>CONCLUSION:</strong> The health research agenda-setting must consider evolving funding sources, its link to production of researches with high probability of knowledge translation to health technology innovation, and policy formulation. Measuring the impact of the NUHRA to the health systems and health situation of the country is a difficult assessment, but the gradual change in healthcare technology utilization and evidence-informed policies towards health equity can be a subjective measurement of the NUHRA's success.</p>

Effect of personality, power, and emotion on developing the 2017-2022 Philippine health research agenda: A case study

@#<p><strong>BACKGROUND:</strong> Social dynamics, specifically personalities, power dynamics, and emotions, have been shown to influence the methods, outputs, and quality of multi-stakeholder processes, especially the development of a national health research agenda.</p><p><strong>OBJECTIVE AND METHODS:</strong> Using a case analysis approach utilizing related conceptual frameworks, the paper determined how personalities, power dynamics, and emotions affected the research priority-setting exercise, identified lessons learned, and recommended how to effectively manage these social dynamics in consultations. Data gathering methods were participant observation and process documentation, results of which were codified and analyzed.</p><p><strong>RESULTS:</strong> Dominant personalities, stakeholders with power, and stakeholders that openly expressed dissatisfaction were most likely to attempt to change the methods and final outputs of the consultation, with varying level of success. Other dominant personalities used their power constructively for a smooth flow of generating and agreeing on ideas.</p><p><strong>CONCLUSION:</strong> In this case, social dynamics was shown to heavily influence the decision-making process, thus underlining its importance in organizing multisectoral representation. Effectively managing social dynamics may thus have to consider building trust and respect between participants, mediating discussions, reaching a mutually beneficial solution, and establishing and implementing mutually agreed house rules. The significant role of facilitators in developing a climate for truly inclusive participation must also be recognized.</p>

Stakeholders in the development of the National Unified Health Research Agenda of the Philippines

@#<p><strong>OBJECTIVES:</strong> Stakeholders and stakeholder engagement in agenda setting are not well documented despite its increased recognition. This paper aimed to describe stakeholder engagement in the agenda setting. Specifically, it aimed to (1) describe the process of stakeholder engagement in the development of the NUHRA 2017-2022; (2) describe characteristics of stakeholders involved; and (3) identify lessons learned during the engagement.</p><p><strong>METHODS:</strong> Documents pertinent to the agenda setting process, which included profile of participants and feedback on the consultation process were reviewed and analyzed. Key informant interviews were also conducted among selected PCHRD officials and members of the Philippine National Health Research System - Research Agenda Committee. Stakeholder mapping was conducted prior to the engagement to identify potential stakeholders. Consultations were conducted in each region involving different stakeholders. Stakeholders in the consultation process were national government agencies, local government units, academe, public and private health facilities, and non-government organizations (NGOs).</p><p><strong>RESULTS:</strong> The stakeholder with the highest representation was the national government (n=110), while the lowest were public and private health facilities (n=14 each). Interactive discussion of stakeholders with diverse background, is the top item that went well during the consultation and should be retained in the future, and; brainstorming session and presentation were identified item that needs improvement.</p><p><strong>CONCLUSION:</strong> A diverse and well-represented set of stakeholders is important in an agenda setting to appropriately identify priorities and to improve uptake of the agenda. Stakeholder engagement, however, should not be limited to agenda setting, collaborative work must be sustained in all aspects of the research cycle.</p>

Strengthening the policy environment for health research in the Philippines: Insights from a preliminary analysis of existing policies

@#<p><strong>BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:</strong> Research plays an important role in generating new knowledge that could improve health outcomes when translated into action. As such, there must exist a supportive research policy environment that facilitates the provision of necessary resources and sustainably ensures an appropriate number of skilled researchers buttressed by institutions. These, in turn, are envisioned to provide facilities, information systems, financial grants, and avenues for career development and collaboration. This study aims to analyze factors in the current policy environment that makes health research possible in the Philippines.</p><p><strong>METHODS:</strong> Qualitative exploratory design was used to characterize the Philippine health research environment. Guided by Adamchak's framework on policy environment, a content review of 39 policy documents (1991 to 2018) by the four core agencies of the Philippine National Health Research System was conducted. Seven elements of the policy environment were described.</p><p><strong>RESULTS:</strong> The policies analyzed in this study mainly addressed the legal, political, cultural, economic, and ecological elements of the policy environment. Policies that support the demographic and technological elements are lacking, in that these leave out details that are essential for capacity building and use of research output. A cross-cutting effort to resolve gaps may be necessary.</p><p><strong>CONCLUSION:</strong> Several factors continuously affect the environment in which policy is developed. There is room for improvement in terms of showcasing the government's regulatory quality and independence from political pressure. Equal attention must also be paid to human capital development, innovation partnerships, and mechanisms to improve knowledge impact, absorption, and utilization.</p>

Strengthening Science and Technology for Health Research: Perspectives from Trade, Development, and Innovation

@#<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>BACKGROUND:</strong> It has long been observed globally that the extent to which developing countries can achieve health targets depends on their capacity to generate, harness, and apply science and technology (S&T). Beyond the health sector, S&T contributes to development by providing a solid foundation for education, infrastructure, and economic progress. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) suggests a set of fundamental elements for an ideal S&T environment: knowledge generators, producers, infrastructures, and the policy instruments.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>OBJECTIVES AND METHODS:</strong> Through document and secondary data review guided by the UNCTAD fundamental elements, this paper aimed to 1) provide an overview of the S&T policies in the country, 2) assess the country's S&T status, 3) identify gaps and challenges, and 4) provide recommendations to strengthen the S&T environment in the country.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>RESULTS:</strong> The country's set of policies in S&T has succeeded in attracting businesses, nurturing good governance, and applying necessary regulatory mechanisms that offers protection and incentives to innovation. While performance in Education & Research has improved, spending on research, patent applications, and journal publications lags regionally and globally. The country's university-industry collaboration has been in decline since 2015. Between 2013 to 2015, innovations strongly enabled changes in business and organizational models. Data show that the country has been devoting increasing percentage of its GDP to Gross Capital Formation. Conversely, logistics performance has been decreasing. The country's score for information and communication technology has been increasing since 2013. Since 2014, the density of newly registered business has remained stagnant.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>CONCLUSION:</strong> Policies implemented through the years in the Philippines have managed to balance strengthening infrastructure capacity while increasing translation and uptake of new knowledge and technologies by enterprises. The country's S&T performance has remained largely stagnant despite the availability of human capital. The Philippines has devoted low funding to research and development, indicating the low priority that it has for S&T. This is manifested in the low research output of the country, in the form of patents and publications, that lags both regionally and globally. The availability of quality infrastructure is a requirement for efficient work of researchers and facilitates adaption of new technologies by enterprises. However, these developments must be coupled with good logistical processes to meet the demands of researchers and the industry</p>

Envisioning the Health Research System in the Philippines by 2040: A perspective inspired by Ambisyon Natin 2040

@#<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:</strong> This paper aims to describe long-term visions for health research in the Philippines. Ambisyon Natin 2040, an overarching vision for a dynamic country by the year 2040, is its main inspiration as this enables innovation and sustainable development.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>METHODS:</strong> The health research profile conceptual framework developed by Tugwell et al., (2006) was utilized to structure the articulation of these visions. Review of related literature, reports, and documents and in-depth interviews with key players in health research were conducted.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>RESULTS:</strong> In view of economic and technological developments in the country, it is expected that in 2040, health research priorities shall be more trans-disciplinary and more advanced. Research on health regulation and ethics will continue to be of importance. A more enabling environment for health research is also envisioned, since majority of research funding is expected to come from government, in addition to more research-friendly laws. More innovative platforms will be utilized to disseminate research results. The increasing international exposure and impact of academic work in the Philippines is also envisaged.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: </strong>Health research in the Philippines has been benefitted by a lot of gains and advances in the past years. Thus, to create an enabling health research system in the Philippines by 2040, focusing on innovations in health research, increased number of funding sources, and crafting of better policies on health research should be pursued. Sustaining these gains and advancing health research in our country entail collective effort from different stakeholders, both public and private.</p>

Operationalizing the development of the National Unified Health Research Agenda 2017-2022

INTRODUCTION: The National Unified Health Research Agenda is a major document whose creation by the Philippine National Health Research Systems is mandated by Philippine Law. Multiple frameworks, methods, and approaches for the development of a health research agenda exists. Available literature on research priority setting have mostly focused on its methods, results, or implementation. There are limited studies on the operations management of conducting a national health research priority-setting exercise.OBJECTIVES: This paper aims to describe the operational components utilized to develop the NUHRA 2017-2022 and provide lessons learned for future research priority setting endeavors.METHODS: This paper identified and categorized the operational components to develop the NUHRA 2017-2022 using the Enabler Criterion of the European Foundation for Quality Management's (EFQM) Excellence Model.RESULTS: Operationalizing the development of a national health research agenda requires the harmonization of multiple components. Having region-based staff involved in the production of a regional situational analysis improved its context and accuracy. The workload for each cluster team must be considered and anticipated by the management. Stakeholder engagement requires political, diplomatic, advocacy, marketing, management, and technical skills. The process requires building relationships with various institutions. In a largescale project, management processes must be in place to effectively track and monitor its progress.CONCLUSION: Operations and management are usually a neglected area in research and development projects. In a bottoms-up research priority-setting approach, iteration and flexibility is needed which requires a lot of management skills and insight. Duration of the project, planning, resources available, and quality of outputs have a strong interconnected relationship.

Mapping the influence of socioeconomic development plans on Philippine Health Research Agenda: A descriptive study

Background@#Understanding and addressing social determinants of health through evidence-based action is a strategy that has been advocated by the World Health Organization as part of its “Health for All” strategy in 1978 and “Health in All Policies“ framework in 2013. It has then been recommended that the research agenda-setting process should be informed by socio-economic development plans with the specific aim of gathering data on social, economic, and cultural conditions that affect health.@*Objective@#This paper reviewed the PDP 2011-2016, PDP 2017-2022, MDGs, and SDGs and identified common directions with the NUHRA 2011-2016 and 2017-2022.@*Methods@#A content analysis of the three identified priorities of the NUHRA vis-a-vis the PDP 2011-2016, the PDP 2017-2022, the MDGs, and the SDGs was done in order to identify harmonization of the priorities of the NUHRAs targets and indicators with those of the other plans and agendas. A gap analysis across all topics was done to identify links and gaps.@*Results@#The results established the common ground between health research priorities and international and national plans. Comparing the number of direct relationships between the NUHRAs, PDPs, MDGs, and SDGs, it was noted that there were more direct links between NUHRA 2017-2022, PDP 2017-2022, and the SDGs compared to NUHRA 2011-2016, PDP 2011-2016, and MDGs. The direct links were mostly found in 1) maternal, newborn and child health, 2) health systems, 3) communicable diseases, 4) water, sanitation, and hygiene, 5) environment, and 6) infrastructure development.@*Conclusion@#The NUHRAs may serve as pathways to achieve the goals stipulated in other socio-economic development plans. The relationships of these to health are complex, nonlinear and often the effects manifest after a long period of time, and as such require rigorous research.

Operationalizing the development of the National Unified Health Research Agenda 2017-2022

Introduction@#The National Unified Health Research Agenda is a major document whose creation by the Philippine National Health Research Systems is mandated by Philippine Law. Multiple frameworks, methods, and approaches for the development of a health research agenda exists. Available literature on research priority setting have mostly focused on its methods, results, or implementation. There are limited studies on the operations management of conducting a national health research priority-setting exercise.@*Objectives@#This paper aims to describe the operational components utilized to develop the NUHRA 2017-2022 and provide lessons learned for future research priority setting endeavors. @*Methods@#This paper identified and categorized the operational components to develop the NUHRA 2017-2022 using the Enabler Criterion of the European Foundation for Quality Management’s (EFQM) Excellence Model.@*Results@#Operationalizing the development of a national health research agenda requires the harmonization of multiple components. Having region-based staff involved in the production of a regional situational analysis improved its context and accuracy. The workload for each cluster team must be considered and anticipated by the management. Stakeholder engagement requires political, diplomatic, advocacy, marketing, management, and technical skills. The process requires building relationships with various institutions. In a largescale project, management processes must be in place to effectively track and monitor its progress.@*Conclusion@#Operations and management are usually a neglected area in research and development projects. In a bottoms-up research priority-setting approach, iteration and flexibility is needed which requires a lot of management skills and insight. Duration of the project, planning, resources available, and quality of outputs have a strong interconnected relationship.