This week PLoS Medicine launches a three part weekly series of articles on the "state-of-the-art" in the growing field of health policy and systems research (HPSR), commissioned following the high profile, WHO-initiated First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Montreux, Switzerland, November 2010. Three Policy Forum articles, authored by a diverse group of global health academics, critically examine the current challenges to the field and lay out what is needed to build capacity in HPSR and support local policy development and health systems strengthening, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In the first article, Dr Kabir Sheikh from the Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, India and colleagues call for greater attention to the fundamental, exploratory, and explanatory types of HPSR, to how the field can contribute to development of societies, and to the need for capacity building in LMICs.
Funding: No specific funding was received for writing this article.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Citation: Sheikh K, Gilson L, Agyepong IA, Hanson K, Ssengooba F, et al. (2011) Building the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research: Framing the Questions. PLoS Med 8(8): e1001073. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001073
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http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001073
CONTACT:
Kabir Sheikh
Public Health Foundation of India
Indian Institute of Public Health, Delhi
121 Sundar Nagar
New Delhi 11003
India
kabir.sheikh@phfi.org
PLOS Medicine