By Nii Martey M. Botchway
Accra, May 04, GNA – PharmAccess Foundation, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to connecting people to better healthcare in Africa, has organised a research symposium on Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for key stakeholders in the health sector.
The event was aimed at sharing ideas among strategic partners on the key steps for developing a policy to stimulate research capacity building for policy makers, healthcare practitioners and researchers in Ghana on digitalization of health financing and delivery models for Universal Health Care (UHC).
The symposium focused on addressing the role of research in enhancing implementation and policy making for innovations in the financing and delivery of health care in Ghana.
It also aimed at sharing lessons learnt with policy makers, providers and practitioners to enhance understanding on the role of research in operations and policy making for digital innovations and health systems strengthening.
Speaking at the event held in Accra, Country Manager of PharmAccess, Dr Maxwell Antwi said the symposium among other things was aimed at creating opportunities for institutional collaboration across academics, researchers, policy makers and practitioners in building research capacity and ensuring the prioritization of research on the national agenda.
He said aside contributing towards continuous training and capacity building of researchers in robust research approaches, the symposium would also generate insights to stimulate proper dissemination of innovations in health systems and contribute towards building capacities of policy-makers and practitioners to ensure uptake of innovations.
He explained that over the years, the partnership between PharmAccess and stakeholders had increased investments in research into the various interventions to improve Ghana’s efforts towards UHC.
“The research that we have done is key to understanding the factors that influence implementation as well as evaluating the impact of the interventions for informing better implementation and policy making,” he noted.
Dr Antwi said the symposium was also to inform key donor agencies about impact of research in digital innovations and health systems strengthening, fostering better collaboration around initiatives with our partners in Ghana.
The symposium was organised in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, NHIA, CHAG, and HeFRA.
Other research and academic institutions which partnered included Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana Department of Economics, Ghana Business School, and School of Public Health.
It brought together key stakeholders including Mr Kweku Agyemang Manu Minister of Health, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director General of Ghana Health Service, Dr Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, a Former Deputy Director General of theWorld Health Organization and Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority.
GNA