The Commission
The Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems in the SDG Era (HQSS Commission) is a group of 30 academics, policymakers, and health system stakeholders from 18 countries. The HQSS Commission will review current knowledge, produce new empirical work, and offer policy recommendations in a report to be published in late 2018 and associated publications.
The focus of the HQSS Commission is health system quality in low and middle income countries. Our work is centered on people: improving their quality of care and the value they derive from the health system.
Aims
Guided by the values of originality, rigor, policy-relevance, transparency, and respect for local contexts and actors, the HQSS Commission has the following aims:
- Define health system quality
- Describe the quality of care for sentinel SDG conditions in LMICs and its equity
- Propose tractable measures of quality
- Identify structural approaches to improve quality
A quality health system is for everybody. Our work will be underpinned by an exploration of the ethical dimensions on quality, including the right to quality health care.
Click on the boxes below to learn more about the background leading up to the Commission and our working groups.
Background
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on health led to substantial improvements in expanding access for basic health interventions globally. Despite these improvements, emerging research has shown that health systems still struggle to provide high quality care.
If health systems are to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), greater attention must be given to providing high quality health care – safe, respectable care that can improve health outcomes – in low and middle income countries. Increasing health facility utilization and improving care coverage will not be sufficient for reaching the ambitious goals set by in the SDGs.
Greater evidence on what drives quality variations, what health care delivery models support competent care, what equitable quality care can look like is urgently needed. The solution space for quality improvement in the context of low and middle income countries is due for an expansion – we must include macro- and meso-level health system approaches that are adapted to the local context.
Working groups
The Commission is organized into four working groups that will review current evidence, produce new empirical work, and issue policy recommendations in key areas. Working groups are divided as follows:
- Definition and description
- Measurement
- Improving quality
- Ethics
All Commission work will be focused on low- and middle-income countries, however, where applicable working groups will build upon lessons learned from high-income countries. Learn more about the working groups and relevant literature in Our Work.
