Solving the Puzzle of Global Health Inequity: Completing the Picture Piece by Piece by Piece.

Abstract

Achieving health equity is an ongoing priority for the global community. Understanding, supporting, and addressing the challenges that face health workers is a critical component of the solution to this problem. The University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda has established the Institute of Global Health Equity Research (IGHER) to contribute to the generation of new knowledge through high-quality research and research training that seeks to improve our understanding of the important issues that influence the distribution of health and healthcare globally. With an unrelenting emphasis on increased impact by prioritizing implementation research, IGHER is particularly interested in amassing a compendium of important research lessons to increase the likelihood that effective implementation strategies will be employed to enhance healthcare service provision. IGHER organizes research according to five foundational research questions, which address different elements that are pivotal to a comprehensive approach to appreciating the nuanced realities of effective healthcare service provision. UGHE outputs for 2020 indicate that: appropriate resourcing of healthcare services is critical for the eradication of global health inequities; policy reform is required for many healthcare innovations and initiatives to be implemented adequately; and high-quality research that is applicable to different contexts is essential for eradicating global health inequities. Furthermore, reimagining healthcare delivery will benefit from an intentional, ongoing, bidirectional influence between evidence-based pedagogy (methods and practices of teaching, education, and instruction) and supporting research activity such that education and instruction inform the research conducted and research findings are fed back to the classroom to help improve education and instruction. As IGHER continues to grow, the valuable insights afforded by high-impact implementation research will increase. These insights will help to inform the development and use of evidence-based implementation strategies for the adoption, scaling, and sustainability of equitable, effective, and efficient health services globally.