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The purpose of this paper is to explore how the health ministries of Turkey and Slovenia use Twitter as government agencies obliged to communicate with the public.

This study employed a content analysis methodology to examine how Turkish (TR) and Slovenian (SLO) health ministries use Twitter for informing and encouraging behavior change in the public. A total of 662 “tweets” were analyzed. Drawing on prior studies, a coding scheme was developed and employed, and χ² and t-tests were conducted for data analysis. Additionally, this study aimed at effecting a content analysis according to the “four models” method of Grunig and Hunt regarding efforts made to build communication with the public.

This study uncovered that the TR and SLO health ministries did not utilize two-way communication principles for Twitter communication, and their frequency of Twitter use is inadequate.

The sampled tweets were selected by using a scientific sampling method. However, this might not have been substantial enough to represent the entirety of tweets in the study timeframe. Analyzing tweets across a longer timeframe would be helpful in confirming this study's findings. This study was also limited to two countries and to publicly available tweets; the messages of health ministries' followers to the ministries themselves were not examined. The findings of this study may not be generalizable to other countries. Other potential studies, with a particular focus on this topic, may be able to measure individual perceptions of the credibility and usefulness of messages from health ministries and their willingness to engage in two-way communication.

This study is one of the first to evaluate how the health ministries of Turkey and Slovenia communicate on Twitter and to apply the four models of Grunig and Hunt with regard to Twitter. This study also identified that noncompeting government agencies were not minded to communicate with their publics.

This case study aims to present the implementation of knowledge management (KM) in the Ministry of Health (MoH) of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Ministry is a very complex environment and it is suffering from information overload. The health care industry is a very intensive knowledge field where experience and tacit knowledge play an important part in delivering efficient health care to the nation.

The paper takes the form of a case study conducted by people involved in the implementation of the KM initiative at the MoH and by the observation and interviews conducted by external researchers.

The paper finds that the implementing of KM had many positive impacts on the MoH in terms of planning and decision making. Even though it is difficult to create a knowledge sharing culture in an environment under pressure involving medical and administrative staff, the initial KM initiatives implemented at the MoH of Bahrain are believed to be the start for a serious and comprehensive KM drive within the Ministry in the coming few years.

The lessons learned from this case can help other health organizations to better understand the barriers and enablers associated with implementing a KM initiative in a complex environment.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the enactment of collaborative governance as a policy strategy in healthcare – in particular its effects in coordinating multiple collaborative initiatives dedicated to improve the performance of health organizations. It studies overarching governance mechanisms that serve as platforms at a meta-level between policy and frontline practice.

Four collaborative governance arrangements dedicated to improve health outcomes in the Netherlands are analyzed in a comparative case-study design, based on extensive document analysis (n=121) and interviews (n=56) with key stakeholders in the field, including the Dutch Ministry of Health, health organizations and other actors.

The studied policy-based governance mechanisms for the coordination of multiple micro-level collaborative initiatives function partly as platforms in bringing actors and resources together successfully. They do so, by fostering evolvability (the capacity to generate diversity in emergent ways) in relation to goal-setting and intermediation between actors. Yet, they marginalize open access to participants through high selectivity and deliberate exclusion strategies for certain actors, contrary to a platform logic of action.

While the collaborative governance literature focuses on these dimensions as independent elements, findings reveal both trade-offs and interdependencies between studied dimensions of coordination associated with platforms, that need to be negotiated and managed.

Selectivity and exclusion in collaborative arrangements may negatively affect relational bonds and ties between actors, which challenges the application of collaborative governance as a policy strategy in pursuit of health objectives.

Responding to recent calls in the literature, this study applies ideas from public administration to the field of health organization and management to avert failures in the translation of policy ambitions into health practice.

Whilst nations have overall responsibility for policies to protect and serve their populations, in many countries, health policy and policies for children are delegated to regions or other local administrations, which make it a challenging subject to explore at a national level. We sought to establish which countries had specific strategies for child and adolescent health care, and whether primary care, social care and the school–healthcare interface was described and planned for, within any policies that exist. In addition, we established the extent to which a child health strategy and meaningful reference to children’s records and care delivery exist in an e-health context. Of concern in the Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA) context is that 40% of European Union and European Economic Area countries had reported no health strategy for children, and more than a half had no reference to supporting delivery of children’s health in their e-health strategy.

We investigated the differences in ownership and leadership of children’s policy, which was a range of ministry input (health, education, labour, welfare or ministries of youth and family); as well as cross-ministerial involvement. In terms of national policy planning and provider planning, we investigated the level of discussion, consultation and interaction between national healthcare bodies (including insurance bodies), providers and the public in policy implementation. The MOCHA project scrutinised the way countries aim to harness the latest technologies by means of e-health strategies, to support health services for children, and found that some had no explicit plans whereas a few were implementing significant innovation. Given that children are a key sector of the population, who by very nature have a need to rely on government and formally governed services for their well-being in the years when they cannot themselves seek or advocate for services, our findings are particularly worrying.

In this chapter the aim is to analyse the way the relationship between health and food has been changing at the same time as Spanish society itself. From the beginnings of the consumer society until the present day the modernization process has made its imprint on the guidelines public bodies have issued to the public on caring for their health and diet. Beginning in the 1960s with a welfare idea of a healthy diet, very typical of the decade, and meant for a population with nutritional problems, today we have guidelines for an overfed population. The social trends dominant in each historical moment are shown throughout this transformation process and the dietary recommendations have been part of the social change. However, the perceptions of the administration itself on what constitutes a healthy diet have also made their mark on the criteria. The modernizing nature of the paternalistic administration of the 1960s can be easily seen in contrast with the public bodies of the 1980s competing with the messages from the food and agricultural businesses. As the 20th century drew to a close, dietary advice was in keeping with a background dominated by considerations on the nature of social change and in which both public bodies and citizens trusted in the truths of science as a reference point for correct action. At the beginning of the 21st century, reflexivity and questioning of scientific power appear and also an increase in public preoccupation with food risks. Each stage is analysed relating historical background and dietary recommendations.

Three events of significance to this country took place in 1899 – the British Food Journal was launched, Australia retained the Ashes, and the Boer War hostilities commenced. If challenged on the order of their importance, cricketers and Empire‐builders may be excused their preference. However, looking at it purely from the standpoint of pro bono publico, the dispassionate observer must surely opt for the birth of a certain publication as being ultimately the most beneficial of the three.

This paper seeks to report the findings of a half‐day workshop on the impact and control of Qat, held in Yemen in February 2010. Senior mental health policy makers, professionals and leaders of mental health non‐governmental organizations (NGOs), were present as part of a wider five‐day national stakeholder conference to develop national mental health strategy for Yemen, at the request of the Social Development Fund for Yemen and in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. The purpose of the half‐day workshop was to examine the knowledge and practice of senior Yemeni mental health policy makers and other stakeholders in relation to Qat.

The stakeholders were purposively selected by the Yemen Social Development Fund to provide representation from the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Human Rights, Ministry of Religious Affairs and Department of Prison Administration, which is linked to the Ministry of the Interior, United Nations Childrens Fund, various mental health NGOs and psychiatrists and psychologists from the main universities in the country. The stakeholders were divided into four workgroups, and each group was given a specified theme to discuss for an hour, namely the impact of Qat on the Yemen economy, health and society and measures to control the use of Qat. All participants were also asked if they habitually chewed Qat.

The stakeholders (professionals, policy makers and leaders of NGOs) were very knowledgeable about the physical, psychological and social effects of habitual Qat consumption, and yet all except one were habitual chewers.

Efforts to discourage the chronic use of Qat will need to be strenuous, consistent and coordinated across sectors. Knowledge of health and social risks alone is unlikely be sufficient to bring about change.

In most countries procurement is undervalued compared to the attention paid to other key areas of Public Sector Reforms. Ghana represents a case in point. Under the health reforms in Ghana, the Ministry of Health and its partners (donors, financing institutions and the private sector) recognized the importance of procurement in its Medium-Term Health Sector Strategy for Ghana 1997 to 2001. With the aid of an external consultant, using a highly participatory approach in the development, training, and the implementation of new structures and procedures, good results have been achieved. Although work is ongoing and important challenges still need to be addressed, the authors argue that the new procurement structures now in place can serve as an example of a standardized support system for health reforms.

The aim of this study is to analyse the position and role of mental health in health promotion policy. Policy documents from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, England and Portugal indicate that, although mental health is considered a serious issue, it is problematic in policy terms. A range of arguments are put forward, making the case for the importance of mental health within the health promotion agenda, including the classification of mental illness as a public health problem, socio‐economic and individual costs of mental health problems and the view that mental well‐being is a crucial element of overall health. However problems of definition, measurement and a traditional focus on treatment and care continue to make mental health promotion problematic for policy makers.

Health sector is one of the most important sectors when the size of spending and the number of people and organizations involved are considered. An important characteristic of this sector is the dominance of governments as health care providers and/or financers. This fact has important procurement policy implications. This paper gives a detailed overview of the health sector in Turkey and issues surrounding public procurement in this sector. It presents a model for implementation of eprocurement in Turkey’s public health sector, a discussion about the extent to which e-procurement can solve prevailing problems and suggestions to improve procurement in this sector.