Institutional Members Newsletter

Best Paper Published in IJQHC in 2019

Reizenstein Award for Best Paper Published in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care (IJQHC) in 2019

We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2019 Reizenstein Prize for best original research article, published in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care (IJQHC).

 

‘Quality of care in six sub-Saharan Africa countries: a provider-based study on adherence to WHO’s antenatal care guideline’ by Patrick Opiyo Owili, Miriam Adoyo Muga, Bomar Rojas Mendez and Bradley Chen.

 

This paper was published in the February 2019 issue of the International Journal for Quality in Health Care.

 

This award is given annually in honour of Prof Peter Reizenstein, IJQHC's Founding Editor. 

 

This paper was selected through a rigorous nomination and voting process using the below criteria:

  • Importance of the paper to the field of health care quality
  • Originality
  • Methodological rigour
  • Appropriateness of conclusions
  • Clarity of writing

This award is normally announced during ISQua’s International Conference, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to host our conference in 2020. Instead, this award will be acknowledged at this year’s conference in July 2021, along with the winners of the 2020 Best Paper.

 

We would like to offer our sincere congratulations to our winning authors.

 

The paper's joint lead author, Dr Patrick Opiyo Owili, provided the below statement:

 

"On behalf of my fellow authors, I would like to thank God and those who evaluated our paper and found it to be the best among the best. All researchers are always concerned with humanity and present evidence that affects policies and are life-changing. However, the Reizenstein Award came as a surprise to us, and we feel greatly honoured and humbled. Thank you. I also thank my fellow authors for their tireless effort to make this a reality. Without you, we would have not come this far. 
 
Access to health care does not mean access to quality health care, and this is the next big agenda after universal health coverage. In some low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), regional inequality is still intrinsically intertwined in the health care system. Hence, the next big challenge—lack of access to quality health care. Our award-winning paper published in 2019, “Quality of care in six sub-Saharan Africa countries: a provider-based study on adherence to WHO’s antenatal care guideline”, showed a number of determinants of optimal quality clinical care and information provided to patients. However, only process indicators and one aspect of healthcare were used in the study. Hence, there still remain unidentified determinants. This, therefore, marks the beginning of exploring the outcome-based indicators, especially in LMICs, in order to provide solid-based solutions to access quality health care."  — Dr. Patrick Opiyo Owili, author