Universal health coverage in LMICs

the global commitment towards achieving universal health coverage is now part of the sustainable development goals at our workshop on the topic participants from Africa Asia and Latin America considered the progress towards achieving UHC and the role research can play to improve the quality of care provided in low and middle income countries delegates highlighted barriers and challenges to implementing quality of care research in LMI sees such as low prioritization of quality of care over financial

considerations and the effective use of data insufficient health systems research emerged as a common challenge however many success stories of quality of care interventions exist including the improvement of public-private partnerships in Africa use of health technology assessments in Asia and vaccination programs in the Americas the workshop identified key research priorities providers and users perspectives on barriers to quality of care how to build on current resources

and capacity the adoption of digital technologies how to strengthen human resources to improve soft skills and frontline workers welfare and addressing organizational and leadership cultures to create a more supportive culture delegates recognized opportunities for collaboration to address these challenges creating global and regional academic networks to enhance advocacy and skills development establishing an open repository for grey literature to share experience integrating quality of

care in health care and medical curricula forming mentorship networks to transfer skills and knowledge across generations advocacy is seen as an important first step to improving quality of care in lmses participants were inspired to identify a number of immediate actions mapping country level research and policy architecture for quality of care improvement researching digital solutions examining the cost of poor quality care and the cost-effectiveness of quality care

interventions as well as actions for the long-term curating a methods reader for quality care research strengthening governance and accountability for quality of care and acting on the research and policy mapping task participants concluded that developing cross country networks is a valuable step in achieving our shared goal of universal health coverage [Music]