Systems Thinking Analyses for Health Policy and Systems Development: A Malaysian Case Study

Health systems are fluid and their components are interdependent in complex ways. Policymakers, academics and students continually endeavour to understand how to manage health systems to improve the health of populations. However, previous scholarship has often failed to engage with the intersections and interactions of health with a multitude of other systems and determinants. This book ambitiously takes on the challenge of presenting health systems as a coherent whole, by applying a systems-thinking lens. It focuses on Malaysia as a case study to demonstrate the evolution of a health system from a low-income developing status to one of the most resilient health systems today. A rich collaboration of multidisciplinary academics working with policymakers who were at the coalface of decision-making and practitioners with decades of experience, provides a candid analysis of what worked and what did not. The result is an engaging, informative and thought-provoking intervention in the debate. This title is Open Access.

Jo. M. Martins is adjunct Professor at the International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Indra Pathmanathan is Principal Visiting Fellow in the International Institute of Global Health, United Nations University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

David T. Tan is Head of Experimentation in the United Nations Development Programme.

Shiang Cheng Lim is Country Technical Lead for Better Health Programme Malaysia at RTI International (Malaysia Office).

Pascale Allotey is Director of the International Institute for Global Health at United Nations University.