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Health System Profiles > Introduction


The Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office Health System Profiles are country-based reports that provide a description and analysis of the health system and reform initiatives in the respective countries.  The profiles seek  to provide comparative information to support policy-makers and analysts in the development of health systems in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.  The profiles can be used to learn about various approaches to the organization, financing and delivery of health services; describe the process, content, and implementation of health care reform programmes; highlight challenges and areas that require more in-depth analysis; and provide a tool for the dissemination of information of health systems and the exchange of experiences of reform strategies between policy-makers and analysts in different  countries. 
These profiles have been produced by country public health experts in collaboration with the Division of Health Systems and Services Development, WHO, EMRO based on standardized templates, comprehensive guidelines and a glossary of terms developed to help compile the profiles. For maintaining consistency and comparability in the sources of information, effort have been made to use as a first source, the information published are available from a national source such as Ministries of Health, Finance, Labor, Welfare; National Statistics Organizations or reports of national surveys.  In case information is not available from these sources then unpublished information from official sources or information published in unofficial sources are used.  As a last resort, country-specific information published by international agencies and research papers published in international and local journals are used.  Since health systems are dynamic and ever changing, any additional information is welcome, which after proper verification, can be put up on the website of the Regional Observatory as this is an ongoing initiative and these profiles will be updated on regular intervals.