ASIAFLUCAP · Health system analysis to support capacity development to respond to pandemic influenza in Asia

Operational planning to implement strategic pandemic influenza plans remains a major challenge. This project will help ensure resources are deployed effectively and efficiently in countries in Asia in the event of a pandemic. To date, an important challenge has been that there is no universally accepted, organised method for evaluating preparedness. This research proposal builds upon and extends an innovative pilot research project between collaborators being conducted in Thailand linking coherently quantitative analyses of resource gaps with qualitative assessments of governance constraints given different epidemiological scenarios. The goal of the project is to provide a framework to evaluate health system operational capacity and, in 4 settings (Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan), and systematically determine operational capacity gaps in order support containment and mitigation of pandemic influenza. Operational capacity gaps will be determined under 4 hypothetical pandemic scenarios. Resources available will be determined in order to address containment and mitigation outcomes. Resources will be mapped at 2 levels (the enabling environment and the organisational environment tasked with implementation). Governance arrangements will be evaluated according to the same pandemic influenza scenarios. The same scenarios will be drawn upon in evaluations of each setting to ensure lessons learned are coherent. With ministerial support across sites, the results from this work will inform revisions of strategic and operational pandemic influenza plans, provide a critical resource for the ‘war room’ in the event of a pandemic, and inform decisions about future resource allocation.