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Not enough there, too many here: understanding geographical imbalances in the distribution of the health workforce

Not enough there, too many here: understanding geographical imbalances in the distribution of the health workforce

  • May 27, 2006
  • Gilles Dussault & Maria Cristina Franceschini
  • Article

Access to quality health services is essential for improving health outcomes, such as those targeted by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Achieving these goals requires vulnerable populations to have access to skilled personnel and necessary resources. This paper examines the geographical imbalances in health personnel distribution, reviews literature on the determinants and barriers, and assesses strategies to address these imbalances, focusing on empirical studies from both developing and developed countries. It also analyzes the success and failures of these strategies and summarizes the lessons learned.

  • Source: Human Resources for Health

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Coleen De Villa worked with the Development Academy of the Philippines, WHO, and the Department of Health, excelling in project coordination, research management, and training facilitation.

Dr. Sarah Larkins

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Dr Sarah Larkins is an experienced research leader, general practitioner and Dean, College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, comprising disciplines of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Public Health and Tropical Medicine and Biomedicine and Molecular Cell Biology.  As a clinician researcher, Sarah has particular skills and experience in health systems and workforce research and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research and is a recognised expert in social accountability in health professional education. Sarah is also Co-Director of the Anton Breinl Research Centre for Health Systems Strengthening. Sarah has over 180 published peer-reviewed journal articles and several book chapters, with an h-index of 37, more than 4500 citations and well over $98m in grant funding.  She currently supervises 10 HDR students with 20 PhD completions.
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Dr. Charlie Labarda

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Charlie Labarda, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine and Dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of the Philippines Manila (UPM-SHS), where he has taught for more than a decade. He is a regular member of the National research Council of the Philippines, belonging to the Medical Sciences Division (Division III). Before joining the medical faculty at UPM-SHS he trained in at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the Philippine General Hospital. He finished his PhD in the Department of Psychology at The University of Hong Kong, his Master in Development Management from the Asian Institute of Management (high honors), Doctor of Medicine (cum laude) at the Our Lady of Fatima University-College of Medicine, and his undergraduate Social Sciences studies (cum laude) at UP Tacloban College. He was a topnotcher in the Physician Licensure Examination (8th place).

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Dr. Shafik Dharamsi

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Dr. Dharamsi is Professor and Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) in Forth Worth, Texas. He received his Ph.D. in 2003 from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. After completing his doctoral education, he worked with the Aga Khan Development Network as the Regional Director of an innovative, community-engaged early childhood development initiative in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania & Uganda). He then returned to Canada to join the University of British Columbia. His research focuses on social accountability and health professions education, global health, and social determinants of health.
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His career includes leadership roles as regional director for early childhood development and poverty alleviation in East Africa with the Aga Khan Development Network, founding associate dean of the School of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, dean of the College of Health Sciences at the University of Texas at El Paso, and senior advisor to the provost at New Mexico State University.

 

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Bjorg Pálsdóttir, MPA

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