It is often said that the world is increasingly divided and fragmented. But the global evidence ecosystem is itself divided and fragmented. What is needed is for an appropriate body (ideally WHO) to convene all stakeholders to develop a global strategy for universal access to reliable healthcare information: to build a world where every person has access to the information they need to protect their own health and the health of others, and is protected from misinformation. We need a global action plan along the lines of the WHO Global Patient Safety Plan, with input from all stakeholders across the global evidence ecosystem. Arguably, the focus of this plan should be to strengthen the global evidence ecosystem and its six constituent parts. https://www.hifa.org/about-hifa
As we wrote back in 2004:
'The development of reliable, relevant, usable information can be represented as a system that requires cooperation among a wide range of professionals including health-care providers, policy makers, researchers, publishers, information professionals, indexers, and systematic reviewers. The system is not working because it is poorly understood, unmanaged, and under-resourced. This Public Health article proposes that WHO takes the lead in championing the goal of "Universal access to essential health-care information by 2015" or "Health Information for All".' Can we achieve health information for all by 2015? The Lancet 2004 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(04)16681-6/abstract
After 20 years of HIFA advocacy, in 2024 WHO launched the Global Coalition for Evidence. We see this as a huge potential step forward. As we said in our official statement to the World Health Assembly last week: "We commend WHO for launching the Global Coalition for Evidence to strengthen the global evidence ecosystem ecosystem. We invite our colleagues across WHO and all stakeholders to work with us to strengthen the ecosystem." https://www.hifa.org/news/hifa-makes-official-statement-79th-world-healt...
The Coalition has the same purpose as HIFA: to strengthen the global evidence ecosystem. To my knowledge we are the only organisations to do so. The problem is that the Coalition, like HIFA, has near-zero capacity. We need WHO and funders to provide modest resources for the Coalition and HIFA so that we can accelerate progress.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org