Saturday 1 March 2014

CFP: “Health impacts as a consequence of regional integration in the ASEAN region”

CALL FOR PAPERS: “Health impacts as a consequence of regional integration in the ASEAN region”

HealthSpace.Asia in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation and Thailand Research Center for Health Services System, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, calls for submission of papers to a Special Issue in Global Health Action addressing different health impacts from regional integration in ASEAN.

Background:
One of the major public policy topics discussed in the Southeast Asia region is regional integration. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprises 10 countries in the Southeast Asia region that share a common interest in building economic and social development. In the ASEAN Charter, ratified in 2008, the 10 members agreed to jointly establish an ASEAN community with “one vision, one identify, one community”. Underlying the community concept are the three pillars of economy, political security, and socio-cultural issues. The goal was set to establish an ASEAN economic community by 2015 with the transformation of ASEAN into a “single market and production base” with many areas of trade liberalization and agreements to facilitate such an achievement. The region aims to move towards an ASEAN socio-cultural and politically secure community, with integrated and interdependent policy development and implementation for regional benefits. In addition, a number of economic and social development programs are in place to expand connectivity and movement of people, goods and services in many of the countries in the region, including the mega-plan to invest in infrastructure projects in Thailand, an agreement to build a high-speed railway system connecting Singapore and Malaysia, and linking Laos and its neighboring countries.

Such changes can impact health in many ways. International agreements on trade liberalization and improved transport and communication infrastructures will likely lead to an increased movement of people, goods, and services across national borders. Migration of health professionals, patients, and cross-country dissemination of germs and diseases or substandard food and harmful products are more likely to occur. Integration of various markets into a single market is also a likely consequence resulting in the consolidation of pricing, and as such it may impact differential pricing and access to medicines and technologies in a number of countries in the region.

Objectives:
- To promote academic research on multisectoral health-related policies in relation to regional integration in the ASEAN countries;
- To improve research and scientific writing capacity among young health policy and system researchers in the ASEAN countries;
- To promote sustained networking through collaborative research work in HealthSpace.Asia; and
- To provide scientific evidence for policy changes and interventions in preparation for the upcoming regional integration movement in the ASEAN countries

Theme of Supplement: “Health impacts as a consequence of regional integration in the ASEAN region”

Key Issues:
Under the main theme, review or research papers and cross country analyses should cover one or more of the following topics:
- Universal health coverage and health care access across the region
- Non-communicable diseases management
- Cross-border epidemics
- Medical tourism
- Comparative assessment of alcohol and tobacco control policy
- Population mobility and potential health impacts
- Environmental health
- Price and access to medicines and health technology
- Regulations and control of counterfeit and substandard medicines
- Health human resources standards and planning
- Health system reform and health service development

Criteria:
- The Review/research papers must address one or more of the focus issues in relation to a particular country or across several countries in the ASEAN region.
- Papers must be original research papers that have not previously been submitted to, or accepted by, any other journal.
- Decisions to accept papers will be based on a single-blind peer review process

Important dates:
Feb 1, 2014 Launch of the call
May 15, 2014 Deadline for submission of manuscripts to Global Health Action
May – Aug 16, 2014 Peer review and revision process
Aug 17, 2014: Deadline for submission of accepted and final version of manuscripts
Sep - Oct 2014 Publication of papers

Manuscript preparation:
Manuscripts should closely follow the recommended style of Global Health Action. Manuscripts for this special issue should be submitted via the journal’s website under the section “ASEAN Integration”. Please make this selection when submitting the manuscript. Please indicate in the cover letter that your manuscript belongs to this section.

For questions related to this special issue in Global Health Action, please contact Associate Prof. Nawi Ng, Managing Editor of Global Health Action (nawi.ng [at] epiph.umu.se)

For questions related to Health Space Asia, please contact:
Kyaw Min Soe, MBBS.MPH
Technical Coordinator
HealthSpace.Asia Admin
Tel: (+66) 2 252-7864 ext. 103, Mobile: (+66) 8 90195175
Fax: (+66) 2 256-4292
Email: tc [at] healthspace.asia