Seeing the full picture

New podcast series aims to inspire ‘systems thinking’ to strengthen health systems

The George Institute for Global Health has developed a special podcast series with the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research. The podcast features conversations with systems thinking experts from around the world and draws on their experience so listeners can learn how using systems thinking can strengthen health systems.

The podcast series, Seeing the full picture, is co-hosted by Dr Devaki Nambiar and Professor Stephen Jan.

In describing the series, Devaki said, "About a decade and a half ago, as some of the literature on systems thinking and health policy and systems research was coming out, my interest was piqued. I became very interested in trying to explore this. This podcast is, I suppose in a way, Stephen’s and my journey through trying to understand this for ourselves and with people who’ve done more thinking in this space."

In the series, the co-hosts reflect on key issues and major developments in systems thinking for health systems strengthening, and interview key thought leaders in the field. There are five episodes in the series:

  • Episode 1 – Alliance foundations in systems thinking: Why then, what now?
  • Episode 2 – Background to systems thinking
  • Episode 3 – The science -and art - of systems thinking in health
  • Episode 4 – Low and middle-income country experiences in systems thinking
  • Episode 5 –  Systems thinking: political and policy challenges

Each episode is approximately 45 minutes, to enable in-depth conversations around key topics.

This series aims to inspire listeners to consider the relevance of these approaches in their work, and that listeners will go on to be part of a new generation of practitioners and researchers advocating for the importance of systems thinking in strengthening health systems globally.