Second Volume

Dear reader,

We are pleased to present the second edition of our journal.

This is a special edition, in a sense that in addition to the student research papers, it includeв the selected abstract of seminar communications presented at Conference on Ageing and Health Economics organized by Deusto University in October 2012 within the framework of the Master program “Sustainable Regional Health Systems”. These communications covered from different angles issues of ageing and chronicity and society response to those.  

Student papers chosen for the second edition of the journal tackle various aspects of health system development in different parts of the world, reflecting the broad international scope of the REGHEALTH program. As usually, we included one detailed health system profile, and Bangladesh came in focus this time. Furthermore, a paper on comparison of two Beveridge type health systems in Italy and Portugal is presented. In relevance to the topic raised in the seminar “Ageing and health economics”, we are pleased to add a reflection paper on the challenges of ageing at individual and society level. Finally, two more papers included in this edition addressed issues of mental health in India and sexual and reproductive health in Nepal.

We hope that the presented papers will be of great interest for REGHEALTH as well as broader audience. Your comments and responses to the published papers are very welcome, and can be included in the upcoming editions to stimulate scientific discussion and learning. Everyone is welcome to submit new articles and share findings of your own research with the readers of our journal.

As journal coordinator, I would like to thank everyone who supported and contributed to this second edition of the journal. Our warm regards to all the authors who submitted their papers, and collaborated efficiently with us and the reviewers to further improve and refine the articles.  I would like to express enormous gratitude for the work of the scientific committee members, for their time and effort put in the paper revision. Our special acknowledgement is for Basque Institute for Healthcare Innovation (O+Berri) for continuous professional support for the journal.

I wish you a pleasant reading,

Best regards,

Polina Putrik

Journal of Sustainable Regional Health Systems. Issue 1, Volume 2, January, 2014