Innovations in health services

Innovation is increasingly viewed as a process of generation and implementation of new ideas, products, services, practices, and policies. In health systems, developing countries are pursuing a wide range of new ideas, including contracting strategies, performance related incentives, decentralization of authorities and resources, social marketing of health products, public-private partnerships, new forms of health insurance, and new approaches to engaging and empowering communities.

Despite the growing numbers of these types of innovations, we still do not know how well these new approaches contribute to improved performance of health systems, or whether it is the act of being innovative that can improve health systems performance. Furthermore, although there have been a large number of innovative strategies proposed in the organization of health services, there remains a wide gap in understanding which strategies work best. Innovation and scaling up innovative strategies that focus on equity seem to be a particular challenge, as these strategies are influenced by country-specific contextual and cultural factors, health policy and systems, and country’s overall political systems. To bridge these gaps in knowledge and to formulate flexible and culture-specific strategies, health systems research and evaluation will be needed that can incorporate these factors of how they can be scaled up.

Future Health Systems has launched research studies in six partner countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Nigeria and Uganda) to test potential innovation in maternity services, informal sector health providers, financial pooling, malaria services and quality of services.