title: Accelerating learning for pro-poor health markets.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Given the rapid evolution of health markets, learning is key to promoting the identification and uptake of health market policies and practices that better serve the needs of the poor. However there are significant challenges to learning about health markets. We discuss the different forms that learning takes, from the development of codified scientific knowledge, through to experience-based learning, all in relationship to health markets.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Notable challenges to learning in health markets include the difficulty of acquiring data from private health care providers, designing evaluations that capture the complex dynamics present within health markets and developing communities of practice that encompass the diverse actors present within health markets, and building trust and mutual understanding across these groups. The paper proposes experimentation with country-specific market data platforms that can integrate relevant evidence from different data sources, and simultaneously exploring strategies to secure better information on private providers and health markets. Possible approaches to adapting evaluation designs so that they are better able to take account of different and changing contexts as well as producing real time findings are discussed. Finally capturing informal knowledge about health markets is key. Communities of practice that bridge different health market actors can help to share such experience-based knowledge and in so doing, may help to formalize it. More geographically-focused communities of practice are needed, and such communities may be supported by innovation brokers and/or be built around member-based organizations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Strategic investments in and support to learning about health markets can address some of the challenges experienced to-date, and accelerate learning that supports health markets that serve the poor.
authors: Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. sbennett@jhu.edu.
authors: Sara
authors: S
authors: Bennett
authors: Gina
authors: G
authors: Lagomarsino
authors: Jeffrey
authors: J
authors: Knezovich
authors: Henry
authors: H
authors: Lucas
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D003906:Developing Countries; D033161:Government Regulation; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D007858:Learning; D011203:Poverty