Table 1 Summary of options for further growth and development of work within the four Workstreams

Lung Health

i. Work towards better understanding of the health risks associated with Household Air Pollution (HAP), and what level of reduction of HAP is necessary to improve health.

ii. Better evidence on which interventions for reducing household air pollution (technologies [e.g. stoves], fuels, ventilation, behaviour) are most effective at reducing HAP.

iii. Community burden of chronic respiratory diseases in relation to epidemiological and socio-economic factors

iv. Developing and testing health system diagnostic and clinical management pathways for patients with chronic cough, including provision for acute episodes

v. Studies and systematic reviews of patient costs associated with chronic non-communicable respiratory disease

vi. Work towards deeper understanding and effective measurement of catastrophic care-seeking costs

Maternal & Newborn Health (MNH)

i. The validity of MNH as a ‘litmus test’ for Universal Health Coverage (UHC)

ii. Design and implementation of a single essential minimum health care package for mothers and babies, including understanding whether such package should include (e.g.) more gynaecological care, cancer screening & mental health

iii. Models for the uptake, establishment and maintenance of audits of maternal deaths and stillbirths to improve quality of care, including new classification systems for attribution of cause of death and factors associated with death

iv. Better understanding of the term “operations research” and more use of operations research in design and implementation of care packages to improve MNH

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD)

i. A new suite of tools and approaches for: sensitive surveillance of NTD transmission, decision support technology to facilitate effective responses to surveillance data, reduction of transmission (both vector control and chemotherapy of infected individuals)

ii. New, better integrated health systems and transmission models for local decision making in policy and practice, along with capacity to develop and use these models.

iii. Developing packages of care for the management of disability and promotion of mental health for those who live with chronic disabling and disfiguring consequences of NTD.

iv. Identifying and controlling disease in hard-to-reach foci, along with maintaining momentum

Health Systems

i. Identifying best approaches to motivate, retain, and support different types of female and male close to community (CTC) providers as a key part of progress towards UHC

ii. Working on opportunities for CTC providers to better address gendered social determinants of health at community level, and to promote effective multi-sectoral engagement

iii. Developing human resource management systems, promoting health workforce supply, and improving health workforce performance in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS)

iv. Wider use of a systematic, evidence-based approach for designing health research capacity strengthening (RCS) programmes, including implementation of common frameworks and use of monitoring indicators to capture impact on health systems and outcomes