One of the projects will address health system responses to aging in developed and developing countries
Published November 17, 2015, last updated on June 3, 2020 under Research News
Duke Kunshan University (DKU) was selected in late 2014 by the World Health Organization’s Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (APO) as one of three research hubs. Led by Shenglan Tang, global health professor and associate director for DKU and China initiatives, the research hub is dedicated to the strengthening of health care systems in Asia in collaboration with other institutions in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos and Fiji.
The research hub has been awarded funding for three projects, which were developed by DKU professors Abu Abdullah and Lijing Yan and collaborators from Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore and Peking University.
These projects address critical challenges that health systems in the Asia Pacific region, including community-based non-communicable disease prevention and management and human resources in primary care settings. The projects aim to review and evaluate current policies, strategies and interventions in each area; identify barriers and facilitating factors during policy implementation; and summarize good practices that may be transferable across countries.
The projects, which will launch in January 2016, will engage collaborators from Bangladesh, China, India, Laos, Singapore and Vietnam. The deliverables will be cross-country comparative analyses, policy briefs, and journal articles. The research findings will inform evidence-based policymaking and contribute to the strengthening of health systems across Asian countries.
A fourth project—focused on health system responses to aging—has been accepted and will be implemented in 2017 pending funding availability.
“Having the research hub at DKU provides us an excellent opportunity to generate new knowledge for strengthening health systems in Asian and Pacific countries, thus improving the health of the people in the region,” said Tang.
The APO—a conglomerate of governments, development agencies and the research community—oversees the research hub network, which plays a critical role in its research output. This rich network of local knowledge, combined with a regional perspective, is what makes the APO’s research hubs so unique, relevant and influential.
For more background on DKU’s selection as a research hub, see our December 2014 article, “WHO Selects Duke Kunshan University as Health Policy and System Research Hub.”
