As part of the North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (NAO) Lecture Series, we welcome Thomas J. Bossert (Harvard University) and Gregory Marchildon (University of Toronto) on Wednesday, October 24, 2018 at 4:00 PM at the Faculty Club (41 Willcocks Street, Toronto). Following the lecture, we will present the inaugural Comparative Health System Award in Honour of Les Boehm to this year’s recipient, and celebrate with a reception.

This event is free of charge and open to anyone. Forward it to a friend who might be interested. Register for this event

Evaluating Health System Decentralization in Federal Systems: Eight International Cases

Why is it so hard to know whether decentralization is a good policy for health systems?  Many observers have made unsubstantiated claims for decentralization in part because there are many different ways to design and implement decentralization in federal systems.  It is also very difficult to evaluate the impact of these policies because of different system contexts in terms of governance, regulation, funding, payment, and service delivery. We have applied a consistent approach, called “decision space”, to show the complex arrangements of decentralization and federal policies in eight different countries to provide a basis for systematic evaluation in the hopes of providing recommendations for policy makers.

Thomas J. Bossert

Senior Lecturer on Global Health Policy, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard School of Public Health
Director, International Health Systems Program, Harvard School of Public Health

Thomas J. Bossert is a Senior Lecturer and the Director of the International Health Systems Program of the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.  He has many years of experience in international health in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. His innovative “decision space” approach to decentralization has appeared in many prestigious journals and recently in an edited book on decentralization. At Harvard, he teaches courses on health system reform and political economy of health systems. He also teaches in the Harvard/World Bank Flagship Course on Health System Strengthening in Washington and in various countries around the world. Dr. Bossert earned his A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Gregory P. Marchildon

Founding Director of the NAO
Professor and Ontario Research Chair in Health Policy and System Design, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto

The founding director of the NAO, Gregory P. Marchildon is Professor and Ontario Research Chair in Health Policy and System Design at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto. A scholar-practitioner, Marchildon has extensive experience in establishing and working in national and international research and policy networks. A member of the editorial board of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, Marchildon is also the Canadian representative on the Health Systems and Policy Monitor network. As the founding director of the NAO, Marchildon is mobilizing the key people and infrastructure to launch and manage the NAO.

North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (NAO)

The North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (NAO) is a collaborative partnership of interested researchers, health organizations, and governments promoting evidence-informed health system policy decision-making. Due to the high degree of health system decentralization in the United States and Canada, the NAO is committed to focusing attention on comparing health systems and policies at the provincial and state level in federations.