The impact and effectiveness of health impact assessment: A conceptual framework

Many of you will have heard me present about the conceptual framework we developed for evaluating the impact and effectiveness of HIA over the past few years. The good news is our paper on it has been published:

Harris-Roxas B, Harris E (2012) The Impact and Effectiveness of Health Impact Assessment: A conceptual framework, Environmental Impact Assessment Review:accepted, in press. doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2012.09.003

It's the first empirically-derived conceptual framework for evaluating HIA that I'm aware of and may also be useful for planning and reporting on HIAs. It emphasises context, process and impacts as key domains and attempts to identify the broad range of factors that influence the effectiveness of HIAs.

Please let me know if you have any problems accessing the article so I can send you a copy.

Free Online Training! WHO/Europe Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for walking and cycling

WHO/Europe’s Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for walking and cycling is an online resource to estimate the economic savings resulting from reductions in mortality as a consequence of regular cycling and/or walking (see www.heatwalkingcycling.org). HEAT can be used by walking and cycling campaigners, researchers and policymakers alike. It enables users to estimate the value to health of new infrastructure, policies or programmes. These can be used to make the case for new investment, or as inputs to comprehensive health impact assessments.

To help people in the use of this tool, WHO/Europe is now offering online training sessions on the following dates:
•         30 November 2012
•         14 December 2012
•         14 January 2013
•         22 February 2013
•         15 March 2013

All sessions will start at 15:00 Central European Time, and will last approximately one hour. During this time you will be walked through an example of HEAT, and be able to ask questions online to experts on HEAT.

Please register by sending an e-mail to training@heatwalkingcycling.org stating:
•         The date of the session you wish to join
•         Any details of ways that you have used the HEAT
•         Any specific questions you would like addressed during the training

We will then send you details of how to log on and access the training session in due time.

Please feel free to forward this message to other colleagues or mailing lists of possibly interested HEAT users.

Kind regards,
Christian Schweizer
Technical Officer, Transport and Health
Division of Communicable Diseases, Health Security and Environment
World Health Organization - Regional Office for Europe

Impact Assessment as a tool for Multisectoral Action for Health

The WHO Centre for Health Development recently convened a consultation on impact assessment as a tool for multisectoral action for health. The summary report is worth reading and will inform a number of upcoming conferences and events.