Stephanie M Topp
Biographic Data
| ID | 1724514 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stephanie M Topp |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stephanie M |
| FAMILY NAME | Topp |
| SIGNATURE | TOPP S M |
| AFFILIATIONS | James Cook University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3448-7983 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 40 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 43 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 40 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The intersection of emergency care, human resources and health equity
Strengthening systems of emergency healthcare is crucial to achieving global and national health goals. One of the key challenges in improving emergency care systems is the insufficient attention given to human resources for health (HRH) tasked with delivering this care. The intersection of emergency care policy and systems, human resources and health equity is an underdeveloped area of research and practice. In this project, we used HRH framewor…
Sugar, power and policy
BACKGROUND: In 2006, the Fiji Government introduced a 0.05FJ$ (0.03USD) per litre excise tax on domestically produced sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). Since then, the tax has been abandoned, reintroduced, or adjusted at least ten times, while tariffs on imported SSBs have also undergone reform. These rapid iterations of Fiji's SSB tax raise questions about which interests and motivations underpin the tax, what instigated the multiple adjustments…
Community engagement approaches and influencing factors in Aedes mosquito management
This study provides new insights into why authorities adopt specific community engagement approaches in Aedes mosquito management, within a high-income country context. It identifies barriers to enhancing community engagement and suggests strategies for addressing them in future planning. These findings are particularly relevant given the increasing Aedes mosquito risk in similar high-income country settings
Watered down
Taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in Vanuatu and Fiji are praised for their alignment with the World Health Organization’s noncommunicable diseases Best Buy policy recommendations. SSB taxes also intersect with economic, trade and commercial interests as well as complex domestic and international power dynamics. Yet, to date, the role of these broader interests and power dynamics in shaping SSB tax adoption in Vanuatu and Fiji has remaine…
We need to talk about ‘bad’ resilience
In this analysis, we argue against seeing health system resilience as an inherently positive concept. The rise in the popularity of health system resilience has led to its increasingly normative framing. We question this widely accepted perspective by examining the underlying assumptions associated with this normative framing of ‘good’ resilience. Our focus is on the risks of accepting the assumption, which can lead us to ignore the social nature…
The puzzle of intersectoral collaboration and health. Revisiting implementation research
[Extract] Advancing the field of health systems research requires drawing from diverse bodies of knowledge. This involves not only deepening expertise within our own intellectual domains but also engaging with the research interests, experiential knowledge and skills of others. It requires a commitment to understanding different perspectives, and seeking opportunities for cross-fertilization and knowledge expansion. This is not a simple task. We …
Economic exclusion and the health and wellbeing impacts of the oil industry in the Niger Delta region
Addressing these issues requires integrated policy interventions focusing on equitable resource distribution, environmental restoration, and inclusive economic development to promote sustainable community resilience
Democratising data to address health system inequities in Australia
Understanding the health status of a population or community is crucial to equitable service planning. Among other uses, data on health status can help local and national planners and policy makers understand patterns and trends in current or emerging health and well-being, especially how disparities relating to geography, ethnicity, language and living with disability influence access to services. In this practice paper we draw attention to the …
A sweet deal for domestic industry
INTRODUCTION: The Government of Vanuatu introduced an excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) in 2015. While lauded for its alignment with the WHO's Best Buys recommendations for addressing non-communicable diseases (NCDs), little is known about the tax's adoption process or whose interests it serves. METHODS: Using case study methodology, this study examined how and why Vanuatu's SSB tax was introduced. Policy documents, key informant int…
Factors influencing the community participation approaches used in Aedes mosquito management in the Torres Strait, Australia
This study revealed the use of both top-down and bottom-up approaches to engaging the community in Aedes mosquito management in the Torres Strait. These findings contribute to a better understanding of why bottom-up approaches are used, which is valuable for shaping future policy decisions. This study also provides suggestions on ways to enhance community participation in the Torres Strait, which could also be considered in other similar tropical…
Challenges to managing quality of care in northern Queensland residential aged care facilities
Senior management teams in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) face a range of challenges in providing quality health care services. With increasing attention directed at quality problems in Australian RACFs, there is an urgent need to better understand the experiences of this crucial cadre. This qualitative study sought to identify challenges from the perspective of current senior managers in residential aged care (RAC) organisations and ma…
The impact of oil industry-related social exclusion on community wellbeing and health in African countries
Background: Oil is the mainstay revenue for a number of African countries. However, extraction can result in multiple impacts on the health and wellbeing of communities living in oil-rich areas. This review explored evidence of oil industry-related social exclusion on community health and wellbeing on the African continent. Methods: We used a systematic approach guided by PRISMA to search six databases for empirical and descriptive sources focuse…
Rethinking trust in the context of mistreatment of women during childbirth
[Extract] The mistreatment of women during childbirth is a global phenomenon.1 Mistreatment includes physical and verbal abuse, violations of privacy, stigma and discrimination, and neglect and abandonment. To date, much of the focus has been on measuring this phenomenon and the interpersonal relationships between women and health workers and the role of and abuse of power by these workers.2 However, more recently, there have been increasing call…
Conceptual framework for systemic capacity strengthening for health policy and systems research
Health policy and systems research (HPSR) is critical in developing health systems to better meet the health needs of their populations. The highly contextualised nature of health systems point to the value of local knowledge and the need for context-embedded HPSR. Despite such need, relatively few individuals, groups or organisations carry out HPSR, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries. Greater effort is required to strengthen …
A summative content analysis of how programmes to improve the right to sexual and reproductive health address power
INTRODUCTION: Power shapes all aspects of global health. The concept of power is not only useful in understanding the current situation, but it is also regularly mobilised in programmatic efforts that seek to change power relations. This paper uses summative content analysis to describe how sexual and reproductive health (SRH) programmes in low-income and middle-income countries explicitly and implicitly aim to alter relations of power. METHODS: …
The population health role of academic health centres
BACKGROUND: Academic health centres (AHCs) are organisations that aim to mobilise knowledge into practice by improving the responsiveness of health systems to emerging evidence. This study aims to explore the population health role of AHCs in Australia and England, where AHCs represent novel organisational forms. METHODS: A multiple-case study design using qualitative methods was used to explore population health goals and activities in four disc…
A controlled study to assess the effects of a Fast Track (FT) service delivery model among stable HIV patients in Lusaka Zambia
Fast Track models—in which patients coming to facility to pick up medications minimize waiting times through foregoing clinical review and collecting pre-packaged medications—present a potential strategy to reduce the burden of treatment. We examine effects of a Fast Track model (FT) in a real-world clinical HIV treatment program on retention to care comparing two clinics initiating FT care to five similar (in size and health care level), standar…
Building patient trust in health systems
Healthcare services in Australia are the primary responsibility of state and territory governments, which recruit and deploy health providers in hospital and primary-care services. Among the various health professional roles, that of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker (A&TSIHW) is one of only two positions that must be occupied by an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person, carrying unique responsibility for enacting cult…
Power analysis in health policy and systems research
Power is a growing area of study for researchers and practitioners working in the field of health policy and systems research (HPSR). Theoretical development and empirical research on power are crucial for providing deeper, more nuanced understandings of the mechanisms and structures leading to social inequities and health disparities; placing contemporary policy concerns in a wider historical, political and social context; and for contributing t…
Unique knowledge, unique skills, unique role
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers (A&TSIHWs) are a professional cadre of Australian health workers typically located in primary care clinics. The role is one of only two that is ‘identified’— that is, it must be occupied by an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person — and holds specific responsibilities in relation to advocating for facility-level cultural safety. However, lack of understanding of the distinctive skills…
Modified scoping review of the enablers and barriers to implementing primary health care in the Covid-19 context
Since the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978, countries have varied in their progress towards establishing and sustaining comprehensive primary health care (PHC) and realizing its associated vision of ‘Health for All’. International health emergencies such as the coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic underscore the importance of PHC in underpinning health equity, including via access to routine essential services and emergency responsiveness. This review …
“ Most of what they do, we cannot do !” How lay health workers respond to barriers to uptake and retention in HIV care among pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in Malawi
BACKGROUND: In the era of Option B+ and 'treat all' policies for HIV, challenges to retention in care are well documented. In Malawi, several large community-facility linkage (CFL) models have emerged to address these challenges, training lay health workers (LHW) to support the national prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme. This qualitative study sought to examine how PMTCT LHW deployed by Malawi's three most prevalent CFL…
The community health worker as service extender, cultural broker and social change agent
This paper is a critical interpretive synthesis of community health workers (CHWs) and accountability in low-income and middle-income countries. The guiding questions were: What factors promote or undermine CHWs as accountability agents? (and) Can these factors be intentionally fostered or suppressed to impel health system accountability? We conducted an iterative search that included articles addressing the core issue of CHWs and accountability,…
Power and politics
[Extract:] Since the watershed moment of the 2014 Ebola \nepidemic in West Africa and again in the midst \nof the current COVID-19 crisis, the concept of \nhealth system resilience has been a recurring \ntheme in global health discussions.1 2 Although \nmost frequently used in the context of epidemic \nresponse, resilience has also been framed as a \n‘key pillar’ of health,3 \n and invoked in high-level \ncalls for countries to ‘lead the work on …
“Together we move a mountain”
It was otherwise an unremarkable November bus ride from Antwerp to Montreux; cold, but in the rather warm company of early career researchers who were to soon become the first cohort of Emerging Voices for Global Health (EV4GH; http://www.ev4gh.net). On that ride, 52 early career health system researchers from 30 countries began a journey. Little did they know it would continue for over a decade, gathering in its wake, 208 more early career resea…
Best Resources on Power in Health Policy and Systems in Low- And Middle-Income Countries
Power is a critical concept to understand and transform health policy and systems. Power manifests implicitly or explicitly at multiple levels-local, national and global-and is present at each actor interface, therefore shaping all actions, processes and outcomes. Analysing and engaging with power has important potential for improving our understanding of the underlying causes of inequity, and our ability to promote transparency, accountability a…
Global Prison Health Care Governance and Health Equity
The large and growing population of people who experience incarceration makes prison health an essential component of public health and a critical setting for reducing health inequities. People who experience incarceration have a high burden of physical and mental health care needs and have poor health outcomes. Addressing these health disparities requires effective governance and accountability for prison health care services, including delivery…
A critical interpretive synthesis of informal payments in maternal health care
Informal payments for healthcare are widely acknowledged as undercutting health care access, but empirical research is somewhat limited. This article is a critical interpretive synthesis that summarizes the evidence base on the drivers and impact of informal payments in maternal health care and critically interrogates the paradigms that are used to describe informal payments. Studies and conceptual articles identified both proximate and systems d…
A qualitative study of the role of workplace and interpersonal trust in shaping service quality and responsiveness in Zambian primary health centres
BACKGROUND: Human decisions, actions and relationships that invoke trust are at the core of functional and productive health systems. Although widely studied in high-income settings, comparatively few studies have explored the influence of trust on health system performance in low- and middle-income countries. This study examines how workplace and inter-personal trust impact service quality and responsiveness in primary health services in Zambia.…
Exploring the drivers of health and healthcare access in Zambian prisons
BACKGROUND: Prison populations in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) experience a high burden of disease and poor access to health care. Although it is generally understood that environmental conditions are dire and contribute to disease spread, evidence of how environmental conditions interact with facility-level social and institutional factors is lacking. This study aimed to unpack the nature of interactions and their influence on health and healthcare …
Understanding the dynamic interactions driving Zambian health centre performance
BACKGROUND: Despite being central to achieving improved population health outcomes, primary health centres in low- and middle-income settings continue to underperform. Little research exists to adequately explain how and why this is the case. This study aimed to test the relevance and usefulness of an adapted conceptual framework for improving our understanding of the mechanisms and causal pathways influencing primary health centre performance. M…
From favours to entitlements
Social accountability is increasingly invoked as a way of improving health services. This article presents a theory-driven qualitative study of the context, mechanisms and outcomes of a social accountability program, Citizen Voice and Action (CVA), implemented by World Vision (WV) in Zambia. Primary data were collected between November 2013 and January 2014. It included in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with program stakeholders. Se…
Building patient trust in health systems
Healthcare services in Australia are the primary responsibility of state and territory governments, which recruit and deploy health providers in hospital and primary-care services. Among the various health professional roles, that of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker (A&TSIHW) is one of only two positions that must be occupied by an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person, carrying unique responsibility for enacting cult…
Integrating HIV treatment with primary care outpatient services
BACKGROUND: Integration of HIV treatment with other primary care services has been argued to potentially improve effectiveness, efficiency and equity. However, outside the field of reproductive health, there is limited empirical evidence regarding the scope or depth of integrated HIV programmes or their relative benefits. Moreover, the body of work describing operational models of integrated service-delivery in context remains thin. Between 2008 …
Integrating HIV treatment with primary care outpatient services
BACKGROUND: Integration of HIV treatment with other primary care services has been argued to potentially improve effectiveness, efficiency and equity. However, outside the field of reproductive health, there is limited empirical evidence regarding the scope or depth of integrated HIV programmes or their relative benefits. Moreover, the body of work describing operational models of integrated service-delivery in context remains thin. Between 2008 …
Understanding the dynamic interactions driving Zambian health centre performance
BACKGROUND: Despite being central to achieving improved population health outcomes, primary health centres in low- and middle-income settings continue to underperform. Little research exists to adequately explain how and why this is the case. This study aimed to test the relevance and usefulness of an adapted conceptual framework for improving our understanding of the mechanisms and causal pathways influencing primary health centre performance. M…
Mapping the Zambian prison health system
Health and health service access in Zambian prisons are in a state of 'chronic emergency'. This study aimed to identify major structural barriers to strengthening the prison health systems. A case-based analysis drew on key informant interviews (n = 7), memos generated during workshops (n = 4) document review and investigator experience. Structural determinants were defined as national or macro-level contextual and material factors directly or in…
Fair publication of qualitative research in health systems
10.1186/s12939-016-0368-y
Health and healthcare access among Zambia’s female prisoners
This systems-oriented analysis revealed how Zambian women's prisoners' health and access to healthcare is influenced by weak resourcing for prisoner health, administrative biases, and a prevailing organisational and inmate culture. Findings highlight the urgent need for investment in structural improvements in health service availability but also interventions to reform the organisational culture which shapes officers' understanding and responsiv…
A qualitative study of the role of workplace and interpersonal trust in shaping service quality and responsiveness in Zambian primary health centres
BACKGROUND: Human decisions, actions and relationships that invoke trust are at the core of functional and productive health systems. Although widely studied in high-income settings, comparatively few studies have explored the influence of trust on health system performance in low- and middle-income countries. This study examines how workplace and inter-personal trust impact service quality and responsiveness in primary health services in Zambia.…
Exploring the drivers of health and healthcare access in Zambian prisons
BACKGROUND: Prison populations in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) experience a high burden of disease and poor access to health care. Although it is generally understood that environmental conditions are dire and contribute to disease spread, evidence of how environmental conditions interact with facility-level social and institutional factors is lacking. This study aimed to unpack the nature of interactions and their influence on health and healthcare …
From favours to entitlements
Social accountability is increasingly invoked as a way of improving health services. This article presents a theory-driven qualitative study of the context, mechanisms and outcomes of a social accountability program, Citizen Voice and Action (CVA), implemented by World Vision (WV) in Zambia. Primary data were collected between November 2013 and January 2014. It included in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with program stakeholders. Se…
The health system accountability impact of prison health committees in Zambia
Our study shows that PrHCs do have potential to facilitate improved social accountability in both state and societal domains and at their intersection, for an extremely vulnerable population. However, sustained and meaningful change will depend on a longer-term strategy that integrates structural reform and is delivered through meaningful cross-sectoral partnership
How to assess and prepare health systems in low- and middle-income countries for integration of services—a systematic review
Best Resources on Power in Health Policy and Systems in Low- And Middle-Income Countries
Power is a critical concept to understand and transform health policy and systems. Power manifests implicitly or explicitly at multiple levels-local, national and global-and is present at each actor interface, therefore shaping all actions, processes and outcomes. Analysing and engaging with power has important potential for improving our understanding of the underlying causes of inequity, and our ability to promote transparency, accountability a…
Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and mortality of HIV, 1980–2017, and forecasts to 2030, for 195 countries and territories
BACKGROUND: Understanding the patterns of HIV/AIDS epidemics is crucial to tracking and monitoring the progress of prevention and control efforts in countries. We provide a comprehensive assessment of the levels and trends of HIV/AIDS incidence, prevalence, mortality, and coverage of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for 1980-2017 and forecast these estimates to 2030 for 195 countries and territories. METHODS: We determined a modelling strategy for ea…
Long-term out of pocket expenditure of people with cancer
Indigenous people with cancer had lower out-of-pocket expenditure, but also accessed fewer Medicare services compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. Indigenous people with cancer were less likely to access specialist attendances, pathology tests, and diagnostic imaging through MBS, and more likely to access primary health care, such as services provided by general practitioners
A critical interpretive synthesis of informal payments in maternal health care
Informal payments for healthcare are widely acknowledged as undercutting health care access, but empirical research is somewhat limited. This article is a critical interpretive synthesis that summarizes the evidence base on the drivers and impact of informal payments in maternal health care and critically interrogates the paradigms that are used to describe informal payments. Studies and conceptual articles identified both proximate and systems d…
“ Most of what they do, we cannot do !” How lay health workers respond to barriers to uptake and retention in HIV care among pregnant and breastfeeding mothers in Malawi
BACKGROUND: In the era of Option B+ and 'treat all' policies for HIV, challenges to retention in care are well documented. In Malawi, several large community-facility linkage (CFL) models have emerged to address these challenges, training lay health workers (LHW) to support the national prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programme. This qualitative study sought to examine how PMTCT LHW deployed by Malawi's three most prevalent CFL…
The community health worker as service extender, cultural broker and social change agent
This paper is a critical interpretive synthesis of community health workers (CHWs) and accountability in low-income and middle-income countries. The guiding questions were: What factors promote or undermine CHWs as accountability agents? (and) Can these factors be intentionally fostered or suppressed to impel health system accountability? We conducted an iterative search that included articles addressing the core issue of CHWs and accountability,…
Power and politics
[Extract:] Since the watershed moment of the 2014 Ebola \nepidemic in West Africa and again in the midst \nof the current COVID-19 crisis, the concept of \nhealth system resilience has been a recurring \ntheme in global health discussions.1 2 Although \nmost frequently used in the context of epidemic \nresponse, resilience has also been framed as a \n‘key pillar’ of health,3 \n and invoked in high-level \ncalls for countries to ‘lead the work on …
“Together we move a mountain”
It was otherwise an unremarkable November bus ride from Antwerp to Montreux; cold, but in the rather warm company of early career researchers who were to soon become the first cohort of Emerging Voices for Global Health (EV4GH; http://www.ev4gh.net). On that ride, 52 early career health system researchers from 30 countries began a journey. Little did they know it would continue for over a decade, gathering in its wake, 208 more early career resea…
Global Prison Health Care Governance and Health Equity
The large and growing population of people who experience incarceration makes prison health an essential component of public health and a critical setting for reducing health inequities. People who experience incarceration have a high burden of physical and mental health care needs and have poor health outcomes. Addressing these health disparities requires effective governance and accountability for prison health care services, including delivery…
Power analysis in health policy and systems research
Power is a growing area of study for researchers and practitioners working in the field of health policy and systems research (HPSR). Theoretical development and empirical research on power are crucial for providing deeper, more nuanced understandings of the mechanisms and structures leading to social inequities and health disparities; placing contemporary policy concerns in a wider historical, political and social context; and for contributing t…
Unique knowledge, unique skills, unique role
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers (A&TSIHWs) are a professional cadre of Australian health workers typically located in primary care clinics. The role is one of only two that is ‘identified’— that is, it must be occupied by an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person — and holds specific responsibilities in relation to advocating for facility-level cultural safety. However, lack of understanding of the distinctive skills…
Modified scoping review of the enablers and barriers to implementing primary health care in the Covid-19 context
Since the Alma Ata Declaration of 1978, countries have varied in their progress towards establishing and sustaining comprehensive primary health care (PHC) and realizing its associated vision of ‘Health for All’. International health emergencies such as the coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic underscore the importance of PHC in underpinning health equity, including via access to routine essential services and emergency responsiveness. This review …
Challenges to managing quality of care in northern Queensland residential aged care facilities
Senior management teams in residential aged care facilities (RACFs) face a range of challenges in providing quality health care services. With increasing attention directed at quality problems in Australian RACFs, there is an urgent need to better understand the experiences of this crucial cadre. This qualitative study sought to identify challenges from the perspective of current senior managers in residential aged care (RAC) organisations and ma…
The impact of oil industry-related social exclusion on community wellbeing and health in African countries
Background: Oil is the mainstay revenue for a number of African countries. However, extraction can result in multiple impacts on the health and wellbeing of communities living in oil-rich areas. This review explored evidence of oil industry-related social exclusion on community health and wellbeing on the African continent. Methods: We used a systematic approach guided by PRISMA to search six databases for empirical and descriptive sources focuse…
Rethinking trust in the context of mistreatment of women during childbirth
[Extract] The mistreatment of women during childbirth is a global phenomenon.1 Mistreatment includes physical and verbal abuse, violations of privacy, stigma and discrimination, and neglect and abandonment. To date, much of the focus has been on measuring this phenomenon and the interpersonal relationships between women and health workers and the role of and abuse of power by these workers.2 However, more recently, there have been increasing call…
Political science (29 works) · Medicine (24 works) · Public relations (19 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Business (18 works) · Nursing (18 works) · Global Maternal and Child Health (16 works) · Health care (15 works) · Economics (14 works) · Public health (13 works)