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Medical Knowledge Institute launches Human Resources for Health Division

Assistance to health workforce to improve global health systems

Oostvoorne, the Netherlands - 13 February 2007 – The Medical Knowledge Institute (MKI) - a non-profit healthcare education and healthcare information organization and UN Associate Member - announces today the launch of its Division of Human Resources for Health (HRH). The new division will assist local and national governments and organizations, as well as other health and public health entities, in assessment and development of health workforce capacity and health systems. The growing global shortage of competent, well-trained, motivated healthcare and public health providers demands action now. The need for education and training plus reliable data and information dissemination about the health workforce and health systems has never been greater.

The MKI HRH Division is under the dynamic leadership of Judith Overall, M.Ed, MScHA, JD.
“The world has reached a crisis point. We don’t have enough health workers, enough training, enough reliable data for making informed decisions about what to do and enough money or incentives to keep trained workers in areas where they are most needed. Capacity building is crucial…now. The health workforce is the backbone of any nation’s health system. Without the workforce, there will be no successful reforms or well-functioning systems, regardless of what other issues policymakers identify as priorities. As the saying goes, we must “think globally and act locally,” but in this instance, we must act globally as well. This is one of those situations that “it takes a village” to combat. This time, the “village” is the whole planet.”

The MKI HRH team is multidisciplinary, multiethnic, multilingual, and multi-experienced. Members are from industry and academia globally. They have on-site, in-country experience in designing, teaching, monitoring, and evaluating health and public health programs, systems and curricula globally. Collectively, the team possesses fluency in all major languages.

The following is a sample of types of issues MKI HRH can address:
• Who are the members of the health workforce? (number and quality)
• How many are needed in which occupations? (data gathering and evaluation)
• What do they need to know? (skills and competencies, and skill-mix needed)
• What currently is being taught to whom, by whom, in what setting, and at what level?
• How to deliver the specific training needed in ways that works best locally? (on-site or web-based; paper materials or online/web-based or DVDs, e.g.)
• Strategic planning for health systems performance, for performance of individual health organizations and of individuals within those organizations, quality indicators
• Financing, financial management, reimbursement, payment methodologies and skills
• Operational management, leadership, and cultural competency skills
• Advocacy and communication skills
• Workforce hiring, training/retraining, and retention skills, incentives
• Information systems, information and knowledge management;
• Health and public health systems research, monitoring and evaluation
• How to translate data into evidence-based decisions and operations
• Analysis of health and public health laws and regulations.