(Artikel slegs in Afrikaans beskikbaar)​

The Centre for Health Systems and Services Research and Development (CHSSRD) aims to provide a platform for health systems and services research and development within the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) and other SU faculties.

The Centre is headed by Prof Lilian Dudley, and although it is based within the Division of Community Health, it is a multidisciplinary entity that includes epidemiologists, public health specialists, social scientists and health economists with varied backgrounds, including medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, psychology, economics and social anthropology.

Within the Faculty, the Centre is partnering with the Unit for Research on Health and Society, the Unit for Infection Prevention and Control, the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care and the

Desmond Tutu TB Centre. Partnerships with other faculties at SU include the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the Stellenbosch University Business School (USB) and the School of Public Leadership.

The need for health systems and services research (HSSR) arose from health systems failing to address the needs of populations, which is often caused by a lack of evidence or health information that can inform priorities, resource allocation and decision-making in the health sector. Currently, there are very few academic centres undertaking HSSR or training health systems research in South Africa and Africa.

The location of the Centre within the FMHS enables it to engage with the practice of clinical medicine from communityand primary care to tertiary hospitals. The Centre is uniquely positioned to focus on health services research due to its relationships with other disciplines within the

Department of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences, and its well-established relationship with provincial and local health services and the National Department of Health. The Centre contributes towards efforts to strengthen health systems through the appropriate training of health professionals.

The CHSSRD will develop health systems research on a regional, national and international basis. This will be done in a proactive, interdisciplinary and collaborative way to provide a science-based service relating to strengthening health systems.

The Centre transfers its scientific outputs, knowledge and skills base through a range of formal and informal teaching and training programmes, and communication strategies.

*The article appears in the latest edition of the Stellenbosch University Research Publication. Click here to read more.

Photograph: Stock image - Unsplash