AGU participates in high-level health policy meeting

Beirut, Mar. 24 (BNA): The Arabian Gulf University (AGU) has participated in the high-level meeting on institutional capacity for use of evidence in health policymaking, held in the Lebanese capital Beirut. Around 60 experts including from the Middle East and beyond, as well as coordinators of WHO’s Regional Office for the Middle East, participated in the meeting. AGU's Community Medicine Professor Randah Hamadeh was nominated to take part in this meeting considering her research and contributions to the survey conducted by WHO’s Regional Office for Health Research Institutions in the region. Her participation was upon invitation from the World Health Organisation (WHO)'s Regional Office for Middle East. During the meeting, several topics were discussed, such as closing the gap between academic research and policymaking, with the aim of enhancing the health of people in the Middle East region. It is a remarkable step that comes as part of a series of continued efforts by WHO to develop health research and utilising it in specifying and fulfilling the requirements of health policy-making in the region. The meeting reflected the growing need for casting light on health policy-making in the region and evaluating the process in institutions, as the latest analysis conducted by WHO has indicated alarming gaps, showing disharmony in the utilisation of research results by health policymakers in the region, in addition to a noticeable shortage in the development of health research and utilising it in the field of policy-making. The three-day meeting highlighted various topics including the best means to apply knowledge, results of policymaking, and developing guidelines and adopting them, in addition to discussing surveys to enhance the institutional capacity in order to use evidence in health policymaking.