Science for Health Systems Conference October 29-31, 2025
The Science for Health Systems Conference is a global forum to share new research on the measurement and improvement of health system performance. This inaugural conference will bring together researchers, policymakers, and implementers from multiple disciplines and regions of the world to share health system research methods and findings to maximize health impact. We especially welcome research that is comparative, large-scale, and focused on health system reform and redesign.
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2025 Conference Themes
Innovations in quality and performance measurement
High quality health systems improve health outcomes, generate trust, and adapt when population needs change. Evaluating system performance requires understanding quality of care over time and across conditions. However, data on care quality are sparse in low-income countries and both high- and low-income countries struggle with lack of standardization, overreliance on inputs and processes, limited data on amenable outcomes and user experience, and data fragmentation. We invite research submissions on new or underused health system quality metrics, measurement methods, or data sources for assessing quality and performance at scale.
Tests of improvement at scale
Improving health system quality is both urgent and complicated. Currently, health systems research and improvement science focus heavily on micro-level interventions, such as provider behavior change, which are difficult to sustain and scale. However, health systems are complex adaptive systems; which require structural solutions to meaningfully improve. This theme will explore new approaches to structural reforms of health system features such as governance, payment, service delivery models, organization, provider education, management, and community participation, etc. We welcome research evaluating the impacts and costs of system-level change on health, population confidence, patient experience, financial protection, and other performance goals.
Effective policy translation
Engaging diverse health system stakeholders to improve systems requires understanding of social and political context and policymaker needs, agreement of what constitutes evidence, and compelling communication. Trust between researchers, policymakers, and communities is essential. This theme seeks new research and insight on how health system researchers can build relationships with key stakeholders, communicate new findings, and shift the policy window towards large-scale reform. Best practices for knowledge dissemination towards improving health system performance are also welcome.


