Dear all,
Hope this message finds you all well. After posting our Health Systems weekly catch up video last Monday, we got quite a few emails with questions about the mid-term assignment.
As mentioned in the video, it is important that we share these questions during our Webinars/Seminars so everyone can also follow the answers. We will list them here with each respective answer and, hopefully, these will also help others
Question: Because we are just preparing slides, is it ok to write the 'script' in the notes section? And will this be marked? Because in practise I wouldn't want to clutter the slides with lots of words, but I worry that this will look as though I haven't done my research properly! Also is there a word limit/do we have to put it through Turnitin?
As stated in the assignment brief, you will be marked based on your slides only. You are free to use the notes section in order to add information, however these won’t be considered when marking your work. Prepare your presentation in the clearest way as possible following the script and you should be fine. There is no word limit but your presentation should not exceed 7 slides.
Question: I have some difficulties with the assignment, I don’t know what to do exactly, or from where to gather the information.
Please refer to the exercise done during Week 2 and review the course materials. Read also the assignment brief and suggested script. You can get reliable data either on the World Bank dataset or the World Health Organisation. Choose a country to describe its Healthcare System financing arrangements as if you were presenting in a conference.
A great deal of this exercise is directed towards students learning how to find reliable information about a specific health system and use explore basic health systems' financing concepts.
Question: I don’t understand the meaning of the term “relative and absolute amount of finance ” which shows on the marking criteria for assignment 1. Could you please explain it a little bit?
We say that an indicator is ‘relative’ to something when considering its relation with another indicator (usually a 'major indicator' like GDP).
For example, we can say that “the x country’s Total Health Expenditure (THE) is 10% relative to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP)” meaning that 10% of its GDP is spent on its health system. If we were saying the absolute number, we would consider its value per se, meaning that in our example the value would be shown using a currency and total numbers, for example, "a total of 10 million US dollars is spent to run the health system of x"(just as an example).
Question: I wanted to ask if it is preferred for the presentation slides info to be organised into bullet points or paragraphs of text. Also, can I include figures?
Either way works, it all depends on the clarity of your slides. I believe it would be very difficult to describe the health systems financing arrangements of a country without figures, so yes, please include. If your question about figures was related to the use of ‘images’, yes you can also use them. Remember, you are preparing a presentation for the general public, meaning that it needs to be as informative (and interesting) as possible.
Question: I just wanted to ask about the country we could choose for the assessment. Do you think it would be better to discuss more of a problematic healthcare financing system in a specific country, rather than choosing a country with a good healthcare system that could still possibly need more improvements in order to promote equity, and efficient spending of healthcare expenditure.
We understand your point, however, the ‘quest’ for equity promotion is applicable to any country, so please base your choice on your own preferences. All countries have their own specificities and this assignment is focused on how its health system financing is arranged – which is a question applicable to any nation state.
Question: I was wondering what sources we can use. Are we able to use sources in another language? I think the country that I choose will be influenced by which sources I can use, as some countries might have little information available in English.
As mentioned, you should use reliable sources of information/data (ex. WHO, World Bank, national statistics offices). And yes, if you are able to use sources in different languages other than English you can, just remember that the actual presentation preparation is in English language.
Question: Are we permitted to use the notes section of the powerpoint or should all information be contained on the slides? Is there any preference for the referencing style we use? I am assuming Harvard or Vancouver is fine?
Please refer to the first question in this post. You can use the notes section but they won’t be considered for marking effects (ex. A very unclear slide with very good explanation notes – what will be considered is the slide only). In regards to references, as with all your assignments, either Vancouver or Harvard is acceptable.
As you can all see, there are many different questions – which I am sure are shared doubts of many of you. As mentioned in our catch up, please remember that this is an exercise; as such, the whole point of the assessment is to incentive you to use the knowledge explored in the first weeks of our course, which forms the basis to understanding any health system arrangement in global health.
See you all at our seminars and webinars,
Jon, Ari and Giuliano
