ALIGN Case Studies – Full Series

ALIGN Case Studies – Full Series

Blog, Case Studies, News
The series is produced by the ALIGN Consortium as part of our shared learning agenda. Each case study—featuring Thailand, the Netherlands, and Ghana—examines how a particular country has navigated the persistent challenge of introducing new health innovations—how it evaluates, prioritizes, finances, and sustains them within real fiscal and political constraints. Our aim is not to rank systems or prescribe a single model, but to understand how reform actually unfolds: what enables it, what constrains it, and what does and does not transfer across contexts. These cases inform ALIGN’s work alongside national partners and are offered in the spirit of mutual learning. We welcome reactions, corrections, and counter-examples from colleagues who know these systems first-hand.
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Case Study Series – the Netherlands

Case Study Series – the Netherlands

Blog, Case Studies, News
📄 Download the full Netherlands case study. (Also in this series: Ghana and Thailand.) Health leaders in all health systems must make critical decisions about which products―including diagnostics, medical devices, medicines, and vaccines―and services to provide within the constraints of their health budget. Between the global pipeline that brings technologies to market and the national systems that must deliver them at scale lies a critical inflection point: health innovation introduction. Prioritization―which often includes health technology assessment (HTA) processes―is an essential function of innovation introduction, as are the coordinated set of national and subnational processes through which innovations are prepared for sustained, scaled access (e.g., regulatory review, procurement, supply chain planning, etc). The Netherlands offers a case of disciplined innovation introduction in a high-income system, where insurance coverage is never automatic on…
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Case Study Series – Ghana

Case Study Series – Ghana

Blog, Case Studies, News
📄 Download the full Ghana case study. (Also in this series: Thailand and the Netherlands.) Health leaders in all health systems must make critical decisions about which products―including diagnostics, medical devices, medicines, and vaccines―and services to provide within the constraints of their health budget. Between the global pipeline that brings technologies to market and the national systems that must deliver them at scale lies a critical inflection point: health innovation introduction. Prioritization―which often includes health technology assessment (HTA) processes―is an essential function of innovation introduction, as are the coordinated set of national and subnational processes through which innovations are prepared for sustained, scaled access (e.g., regulatory review, procurement, supply chain planning, etc). Every health system faces difficult choices about which innovations to fund and how to make the best use…
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Case Study Series – Thailand

Case Study Series – Thailand

Blog, Case Studies, News
📄 Download the full Thailand case study.  (Also in this series: Ghana and the Netherlands.) Health leaders in all health systems must make critical decisions about which products―including diagnostics, medical devices, medicines, and vaccines―and services to provide within the constraints of their health budget. Between the global pipeline that brings technologies to market and the national systems that must deliver them at scale lies a critical inflection point: health innovation introduction. Prioritization―which often includes health technology assessment (HTA) processes―is an essential function of innovation introduction, as are the coordinated set of national and subnational processes through which innovations are prepared for sustained, scaled access (e.g., regulatory review, procurement, supply chain planning, etc). Thailand’s approach to health product prioritization―among the most fully institutionalized in middle-income countries―is anchored in the Health Intervention and…
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The ALIGN Market Intelligence Hub – White Paper

The ALIGN Market Intelligence Hub – White Paper

Blog, News, Our Reports, White Paper
Health leaders, particularly those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), face a structural gap between the rapid pace of health innovation and the ability of their countries to anticipate, prioritize, finance, and introduce new products effectively and efficiently. Decisions about adopting devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines are often made reactively, with limited visibility into product supply (new emerging products, pipelines, costs, regulatory timelines, delivery requirements), health system capacity, and local context, including demand. Yet such visibility is key to country-led improved health product prioritization and introduction decisions. This paper, developed by the ALIGN Consortium, announces a tool to address the gap between the possible pipeline and realized rollout of health products. ALIGN Market Intelligence Hub is a decision-support tool designed to transform fragmented data on health products into actionable prioritization and…
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An Open Letter: Building Stronger Systems for Health Innovation Introduction

An Open Letter: Building Stronger Systems for Health Innovation Introduction

News, Our Reports, White Paper
In this open letter, members of the ALIGN Consortium call for urgent reforms to strengthen national systems for health innovation introduction through four pillars: (1) whole-of-government coordination and capacity; (2) improved data availability and use; (3) multi-sector engagement for alignment and accountability; and (4) portfolio-based prioritization and planning.   📄 Download the Open Letter Original Publication: February 2026
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Heart Failure in Sub-Saharan Africa: Current and Future Systems of Care

Heart Failure in Sub-Saharan Africa: Current and Future Systems of Care

Blog, Published Paper
[caption id="attachment_6909" align="alignleft" width="450"] Figure 3: Core Domains of Integrated Health Systems for Heart Failure in Sub-Saharan Africa[/caption] Download the full article from the Journal of Asian Pacific Society of Cardiology. This piece argues that heart failure (HF) is an increasingly important but under-addressed health-system challenge in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Unlike in high-income countries, HF often affects younger adults in SSA, with hypertension, cardiomyopathy, and rheumatic heart disease among the leading causes. Patients frequently present late, contributing to substantially higher mortality and rehospitalization rates than global averages. The authors (including Krishna Udayakumar, and G Titus Ngeno, of Duke Global Health Innovations Center), emphasize that the challenge extends beyond clinical capacity. Limited financing, high out-of-pocket costs, inadequate insurance coverage, shortages of trained health workers, limited diagnostic capacity, and concentration of services in tertiary hospitals all…
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