IJCOMS - Call for Papers

Measuring Primary Health Care for Quality Improvement: Performance Metrics and Learning Systems for Improvement

The measurement and use of performance data are fundamental in working towards strong healthcare systems. Primary Health Care (PHC), which forms the backbone of country health systems, requires frequent measurement and evaluation. 

The resulting performance intelligence has varied uses, including improving the performance of PHC teams, benchmarking the performance of PHC centres regionally, or signalling gaps in services to inform strategic policy priorities nationally, among other uses.

In 2022, there is renewed impetus to accelerate the development and use of PHC performance measurement for quality improvement. Countries globally reaffirmed their commitment to accelerate efforts to strengthen PHC with the adoption of the Declaration of Astana in 2018.[i] It is now accompanied by a first-ever globally endorsed PHC measurement and monitoring tool[ii]. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has also served to reinforce the importance of accessible, quality PHC data for measurement purposes, as well as the potential to accelerate the development and use of electronic data systems. A general movement towards learning healthcare systems further attests to the critical role of PHC measurement and its use for quality improvement as an integral part of healthcare delivery processes[iii].

This special issue aims to present current research and practice to use PHC performance measurement for quality improvement purposes. 

As our frameworks and PHC indicator sets become more sophisticated, and the potential for electronic PHC data sources increases, our attention must turn to ensure that systems for measurement, learning, and improvement are in place. 

This special issue aims to capture these developments.

Article types

IJQHC Communications considers a wide range of article types, including Original Articles, Systematic Reviews, Narrative Reviews, Perspectives, Frontiers of Improvement, Editorials, Protocols, Policy Analysis, Quality Improvement Projects/Care Delivery and Practice Improvement Reports, Quality Improvement Projects, and Field Action Reports.

Topics of interest

The special issue is global in nature, and submissions from all country contexts will be considered. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• National, regional, local, or facility-specific initiatives to measure and improve PHC performance.
• Recent experiences developing national, regional, local or facility-specific policies for updating, developing, or applying PHC performance indicators.
• Pilot projects or case studies exploring the use of new PHC data sources (e.g., electronic medical records, surveys of patients, professionals or facility managers, insurance claims data, etc.).
• Challenges and opportunities to extend the use of PHC performance measurement for quality improvement.
• Workforce training to implement sustainable, scalable, and impactful PHC performance measurement.
• Innovative approaches to delivering feedback information to primary care professionals (e.g., dashboards, feedback or audit cycles, use of quality improvement specialists, etc.).
• Novel approaches to measuring PHC related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Important dates

Articles will be screened, peer-reviewed, and published on a rolling basis. The last date for submission to the special issue is 30 June 2022.

Submission and questions

To ensure consideration in the special issue, authors should note in a cover letter that their submission is for the “Measuring PHC for QI” special issue. Detailed information for online submission to IJCOMS is available at https://academic.oup.com/ijcoms/general-instructions.

References

[i]Declaration of Astana. World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2018.

[ii]Primary health care measurement framework and indicators: monitoring health systems through a primary health care lens. Geneva: World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 2022.

[iii]Menear M, Blanchette M-A, Demers-Payette O, Roy D. A framework for value-creating learning health systems. Health research policy and systems. 2019;17(1):79.