Resources search

WHO standards for prosthetics and orthotics. Assessment package. Assessment guide

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
April 2023

Expand view

The Assessment package has been developed for countries to evaluate the implementation of the WHO Standards for prosthetics and orthotics. It enables identification of areas in need of strengthening and facilitates relevant planning. The complete Assessment package consists of four components:

Assessment guide: gives directions on how to organize and implement the assessment.
Assessment tool: Excel instrument used to carry out assessments and record results.
User manual: explains how the Assessment tool should be used.
Planning document: Excel file into which the recommendations that are generated by the Assessment tool can be pasted for easy use in subsequent planning.

 

Before undertaking the assessment, stakeholders at the country level should familiarize themselves with the package components and the WHO standards for prosthetics and orthotics (Parts 1 and 2). A PowerPoint presentation describing the assessment process and a video presenting the main assessment steps and key functions of the tool are also available to download from the links below. It is recommended that assessments are undertaken in collaboration with the ministry of health and other ministries responsible for assistive technology, prosthetics and orthotics, and/or rehabilitation.

Related links:

Assessment guide

Assessment tool

User manual

Planning document

PowerPoint presentation

PowerPoint presentation in pdf

Video 

WHO launches assistive technology capacity assessment (ATA-C)

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
November 2020

Expand view

WHO has developed the assistive technology capacity assessment (ATA-C) tool, a system-level tool to evaluate a country’s capacity to finance, regulate, procure and provide assistive technology. The ATA-C tool enables countries to better understand the current status and identify key actions to improve access to assistive technology: it can be used for awareness raising, policy and programme design and ongoing monitoring and evaluation.

The ATA-C is part of the WHO Assistive Technology Assessment (ATA) Toolkit, helping countries to collect effective and relevant data on assistive technology

Ear and hearing survey handbook

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
May 2020

Expand view

This survey handbook provides guidance for planning and implementing hearing loss surveys, including information on possible data collection tools. The survey handbook aims to enable countries – particularly low- and middle-income countries – to gather data by planning and implementing population-based epidemiological surveys.

The main uses of data collected by such surveys are:

  • to provide an accurate picture of hearing loss prevalence in a given area, which could be a country or an area within the country (e.g. district or state);
  • to provide an overview of the most common probable causes of deafness and hearing loss in the study area;
  • assess global and regional prevalence and trends

 

Using this survey handbook for data collection will help to ensure comparability of data collected through studies conducted in different countries and by different investigators. This will facilitate the estimation of global prevalence and the examination of hearing loss trends over time.

Emergency trauma response to the Gaza mass demonstrations 2018–2019. A one-year review of trauma data and the humanitarian consequences

OLIM, Nelson
HALIMAH, Sarah
Eds
May 2019

Expand view

The specific goals of this publication are first, to conduct an analysis of 1 year of conflict related trauma in Gaza; second, to highlight the role of the Health Cluster partners, including the World Health Organization (WHO) as the cluster lead agency, in supporting the local health system; and third, to document success stories, challenges and lessons learnt

Epilepsy: a public health imperative

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
2019

Expand view

This report is the first global report on epilepsy summarising the available evidence on the burden of epilepsy and the public health response required at global, regional and national levels.

This report is a call for sustained and coordinated action to ensure that every person with epilepsy has access to the care and treatment they need, and the opportunity to live free from stigma and discrimination in all parts of the world. It is time to highlight epilepsy as a public health imperative, to strongly encourage investment in reducing its burden, and to advocate for actions to address gaps in epilepsy knowledge, care and research.

Public Health Information Services. Public Health Situation Analysis standard operating procedures

World Health Organization
April 2018

Expand view

The Public Health Situation Analysis (PHSA) aims to provide all health sector partners, including local and national authorities, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), donor agencies and United Nations agencies with a common and comprehensive understanding of the public health situation in a crisis in order to inform evidence based collective humanitarian health response planning. The PHSA may also be used to feed other sectoral and intersectoral products, such as providing the health input to the Humanitarian Needs Overview, and is also used in support of the WHO (re-)grading process.

 

The PHSA updates and replaces the previous Public Health Risk Assessment (PHRA) prepared by WHO. There are two versions of the PHSA: a short-form or “initial” PHSA, and a long-form or “full” PHSA. This SOP covers both.

Rehabilitation in health systems

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
2017

Expand view

This document provides evidence-based, expert-informed recommendations and good practice statements to support health systems and stakeholders in strengthening and extending high-quality rehabilitation services so that they can better respond to the needs of populations. The recommendations are intended for government leaders and health policy-makers and are also relevant for sectors such as workforce and training. The recommendations and good practice statements may also be useful for people involved in rehabilitation research, service delivery, financing and assistive products, including professional organisations, academic institutions, civil society and nongovernmental and international organisations. The recommendations focus solely on rehabilitation in the context of health systems. They address the elements of service delivery and financing specifically. The recommendations were developed according to standard WHO procedures, detailed in the WHO handbook for guideline development

Zika: the origin and spread of a mosquito-borne virus

KINDHAUSER, Mary Kay
ALLEN Tomas
FRANK Veronika
SANTHANAA Ravi Shankar
DYE Christopher
September 2016

Expand view

The temporal and geographical distribution of Zika virus infection and associated neurological disorders, from 1947 to 1 February 2016, when Zika became a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) are described following an extensive literature search. During this period a total of 74 countries and territories had reported human Zika virus infections. The timeline in this paper charts the discovery of the virus (1947), its isolation from mosquitos (1948), the first human infection (1952), the initial spread of infection from Asia to a Pacific island (2007), the first known instance of sexual transmission (2008), reports of Guillain-Barré syndrome (2014) and microcephaly (2015) linked to Zika infections and the first appearance of Zika in the Americas (from 2015). The paper concludes that the Zika virus infection in humans appears to have changed in character as its geographical range has expanded from equatorial Africa and Asia. The change is from an endemic, mosquito-borne infection causing mild illness to one that can cause large outbreaks linked with neurological sequelae and congenital abnormalities

 

World health statistics 2015

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
2015

Expand view

This report contains WHO’s annual compilation of health-related data for its 194 Member States, and includes a summary of the progress made towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and associated targets

WHO global strategy and action plan on ageing and health

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
2015

Expand view

The purpose of the Global Strategy and Action Plan on Ageing and Health 2016-2020 is “to define the goals, strategies, and activities that WHO (its Member States and secretariat) will pursue on ageing and health, and to clearly lay these out as a global framework for public health action relevant to low-, middle-, and high-income settings ”

Capturing the difference we make : community-based rehabilitation indicators manual

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
2015

Expand view

This manual presents indicators that "capture the difference (Community-Based Rehabilitation) CBR makes in the lives of people with disabilities in the communities where it is implemented. This manual presents these (base and supplementary) indicators and provides simple guidance on collecting the data needed to inform them. The indicators have been developed to show the difference between people living with a disability and their families and those without disabilities in relation to the information reported in the indicators. This comparability provides valuable information to CBR managers, donors and government agencies alike, which can be used to guide decision-making, support advocacy and improve accountability. Further, the ability of the indicators to provide a comparison of the populations of persons with disability to persons without disability aligns with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which states that persons with disability have equal rights to those without disabilities...this manual serves to standardize the monitoring of differences made by in the lives of people with disabilities and their families, making it possible to compare the difference CBR makes across areas and countries. This manual aligns with the WHO Global Disability Action Plan 2014–2021, and may also be used to monitor other development plans in an easy and efficient way”

The global status report on road safety 2013 : supporting a decade of action

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
2013

Expand view

"This report presents information on road safety from 182 countries, accounting for almost 99% of the world’s population. The report indicates that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths remains unacceptably high at 1.24 million per year. Only 28 countries, covering 7% of the world’s population, have comprehensive road safety laws on five key risk factors: drinking and driving, speeding, and failing to use motorcycle helmets, seat-belts, and child restraints. This report serves as a baseline for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, declared by the UN General Assembly. This is the second in a Global status report series"

World Health Statistics 2012

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
2012

Expand view

"World Health Statistics 2012 contains WHO’s annual compilation of health-related data for its 194 Member States, and includes a summary of the progress made towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and associated targets. This year, it also includes highlight summaries on the topics of noncommunicable diseases, universal health coverage and civil registration coverage"
Note: The summary brochure, full report, report in English by section, the indicator compendium and printed copy order forms are available from the link above

Improved and standardized method for assessing years lived with disability after injury

HAAGSMA, JA
et al
2012

Expand view

"This article presents the results of study that aimed to develop a standardized method for calculating years lived with disability (YLD) after injury. The method developed consists of obtaining data on injury cases seen in emergency departments as well as injury-related hospital admissions, using the EUROCOST system to link the injury cases to disability information and employing empirical data to describe functional outcomes in injured patients. The novel method for calculating YLD after injury can be applied in different settings, overcomes some limitations of the method used to calculate the global burden of disease, and allows more accurate estimates of the population burden of injury"
Bull World Health Organ, 90

World report on disability

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
WORLD BANK
2011

Expand view

This report "reviews evidence about the situation of people with disabilities around the world. Following chapters on understanding disability and measuring disability, the report contains topic-specific chapters on health; rehabilitation; assistance and support; enabling environments; education; and employment. Within each chapter, there is a discussion of the barriers confronted, and case studies showing how countries have succeeded in addressing these by promoting good practice. In its final chapter, the report offers nine concrete recommendations for policy and practice which if put in place could lead to real improvements in the lives of people with disability"

Mental health atlas

WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
2011

Expand view

This report "represents the latest estimate of global mental health resources available to prevent and treat mental disorders and help protect the human rights of people living with these conditions. It presents data from 184 WHO Member States, covering 98% of the world’s population. Facts and figures presented in Atlas indicate that resources for mental health remain inadequate. The distribution of resources across regions and income groups is substantially uneven and in many countries resources are extremely scarce. Results from Atlas reinforce the urgent need to scale up resources and care for mental health within countries"

Medicines use in primary care in developing and transitional countries : fact book summarizing results from studies reported between 1990 and 2006

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
May 2009

Expand view

Irrational use of medicines is one of the most serious global public health problems we face today. Improving use requires regular monitoring and application of effective interventions, both of which are often not done, particularly in many lower income countries. To address this issue, WHO created a database of medicines use in in primary care settings in developing and transitional countries. Quantitative information has been extracted from 679 studies conducted in 97 countries and on 386 interventions (from 313 studies). The medicines use database has allowed the first systematic quantitative review of studies measuring medicines use in developing and transitional countries and the results are now presented

Handbook on monitoring and evaluation of human resources for health : with special applications for low- and middle-income countries

DAL POZ, Mario R
Ed
2009

Expand view

This handbook aims strengthen the technical capacity of health managers, researchers and policy makers, to monitor and evaluate their health workforce accurately . It brings together an analytical framework for strategy options for improving the health workforce information and evidence base, as well as country experiences to highlight approaches that have worked

Systems thinking for health systems strengthening

Eds
2009

Expand view

This third report knits together earlier work by accelerating a more realistic understanding of what works in strengthening health systems, for whom and under what circumstances. Its primary goal is to catalyse new conceptual thinking on health systems, system-level interventions, and health system strengthening

Pages

E-bulletin