About the Authors

John N. Lavis

lavisj@mcmaster.ca

Affiliation McMaster Health Forum, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Department of Political Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

John-Arne Røttingen

Affiliation Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services, Oslo, Norway

Xavier Bosch-Capblanch

Affiliation Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland

Rifat Atun

Affiliation Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Geneva, Switzerland and Imperial College, London, United Kingdom

Fadi El-Jardali

Affiliation Department of Health Policy and Management, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon and McMaster Health Forum, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Lucy Gilson

Affiliation University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom

Simon Lewin

Affiliation Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services, Oslo, Norway, and Health Systems Research Unit, Medical Research Council of South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa

Sandy Oliver

Affiliation EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, London, United Kingdom

Pierre Ongolo-Zogo

Affiliation Centre for the Development of Best Practices in Health, Yaoundé Central Hospital, and University of Yaoundé, Yaoundé, Cameroon

Andy Haines

Affiliation London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services received funds from the WHO for the contributions of XBC and SL to developing the Handbook to produce health systems guidance, and some of this work is reported in this article. All other authors declare no competing interests.

Author Contributions

Wrote the first draft of the manuscript: JNL. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: JNL J-AR XB-C RA FE-J LG SL SO PO-Z AH. ICMJE criteria for authorship read and met: JNL J-AR XB-C RA FE-J LG SL SO PO-Z AH. Agree with manuscript results and conclusions: JNL J-AR XB-C RA FE-J LG SL SO PO-Z AH. Conceived and designed the process: JNL J-AR XB-C RA FE-J LG SL SO PO-Z AH.