A new study which explores the relationship between sub-Saharan African authors and their respective co-authors has been published in Globalization and Health. The study was a collaboration between OHE, NICE International and PRICELESS.

A new study which explores the relationship between sub-Saharan African authors and their respective co-authors has been published in Globalization and Health.

Collaboration between researchers is important for the generation, transfer and translation of evidence to support health technology assessment (HTA) and decision making processes in healthcare. The objective of this study was to evaluate collaboration patterns between countries.

A rapid evidence assessment was conducted that includes economic evaluations carried out in 20 sub-Saharan countries: Angola, Botswana, Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Uganda.

The results suggest that the Southern African authors are collaborating more with researchers from Europe and the US than with those in other African countries. However, there is a high level of collaboration between researchers within the same country (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Within and between country collaborations

This project is the result of a collaboration between the OHE, NICE International and PRICELESS SA. The study was prepared as part of the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI), a global initiative to support decision makers in priority-setting for universal health coverage. This work received funding support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Department for International Development (UK), and the Rockefeller Foundation. 

Access the full paper here.

An earlier version of this work was presented at the 2016 HTAi conference in Tokyo, May 2016.

For more information contact Karla Hernandez-Villafuerte at OHE.