Advancing knowledge through multidisciplinary research, collaboration, and evidence-based practice.
This axis aims to generate data related to public health using epidemiological studies of various types. It will focus on mapping disease prevalence and incidence, as well as identifying relevant risk factors in Lebanon.
According to researchers’ specialties, the axis will address topics including chronic diseases, infectious diseases, smoking and other risky behaviors, exposure to toxic substances and their related health effects.
Researchers will also assess health research conducted in Lebanon through bibliometric studies and contribute to the development of evidence-based health strategies aimed at achieving specific public health goals.
Endorse the utility of the translated Mini-Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire and Asthma Control Test in Arabic-speaking patients suffering from asthma among health care professionals. Based on our studies, health care professionals and researchers can readily use both scales among Lebanese asthmatic children as a routine screening test to identify quality of life and asthma control.
Spread awareness about factors related to poorer quality of life in children with asthma. Identifying modifiable risk factors may allow appropriate interventions, especially in cases of uncontrolled asthma, and contribute to improving patient outcomes.
Spread awareness about factors associated with asthma, poorer asthma control, and reduced quality of life in asthmatic children, including waterpipe smoking during pregnancy and cigarette smoking during breastfeeding.
Increase awareness about dietary patterns and the intake of over-the-counter medications during pregnancy that may be associated with childhood asthma. Encourage healthy diets rich in fruits, fish, and natural antioxidants.
Organize educational programs for parents, physicians, and pharmacists about asthma in children, while reinforcing health education among health care professionals and increasing awareness among parents and pregnant women.
Endorse the incorporation of shocking images and health-related textual warnings on tobacco and cigarette boxes. Strong visual and written warnings may increase motivation and intention to quit smoking.
Initiate public health educational programs and interventions aimed at increasing the intention to quit cigarette and waterpipe smoking as an important first step toward smoking cessation.
Encourage health care professionals to play an active role in explaining the health effects and risks of waterpipe smoking in order to reduce dependence and support smoking cessation.
Establish awareness campaigns to increase knowledge of the dangers of waterpipe smoking and dependence, while encouraging young adults to adopt healthier and health-promoting behaviors.
Apply primary care prevention measures in the community, particularly for high-risk groups.
Increase awareness among the general population about stroke prevention, early recognition, early intervention, and appropriate management before hospitalization.
Monitor stroke incidence and risk factors through continuous surveillance. Point-prevalence repeated assessments may also be useful.
Disseminate validated scores related to stroke symptoms and stroke diagnosis for use in research and clinical practice settings.
Improve in-hospital stroke management through specialized training of dedicated healthcare professionals.
Ensure quality care through appropriate completion of medical charts and proper application of international clinical guidelines.
Ensure adequate implementation of post-stroke recommendations.
Develop a research policy related to stroke.
Develop guidelines for the prevention and management of stroke, adapted to the Lebanese context.
This axis conducts research on the rational use of medications in clinical and epidemiological settings, both in the community and in hospitals.
Topics covered include the application of clinical guidelines related to drug treatment, the evaluation of medication prescription and administration, medication use review, medication safety and pharmacovigilance, and medication errors.
Proceed with the electronic Patient Profile project and optimize it to support Medication Therapy Management by pharmacists in both community and hospital settings.
Proceed with the implementation of a Medication Safety System to promote pharmacovigilance and prevent medication errors.
Generate guidelines for medication use in selected clinical conditions and special populations, including older adults, children, pregnant women, and patients with specific organ failure.
Promote awareness and educational campaigns for the public, particularly on chronic disease medications and antimicrobial resistance.
Encourage the use of medication-related tools made available to clinicians, including tools that assess and improve patient adherence to treatment.
Define the professional framework of hospital and clinical pharmacists, including implementation of related laws, specialty titles, credentialing conditions, and improvement of working conditions.
Encourage health care professionals to contribute to the translation of research into public health practice, with particular focus on reducing the burden of chronic diseases. This includes the use of validated questionnaires and scales for diagnosis, assessment of health status, and evaluation of quality of life in patients with chronic conditions.
Emphasize the importance of using specific biomarkers in the diagnosis and prognosis of chronic diseases, supporting more accurate clinical assessment and evidence-based management.
Give greater priority to research in clinical epidemiology and explore opportunities for increased funding to support studies on clinical biomarkers, including their prevalence, severity, progression, and response to treatment in chronic diseases.
Identify all stakeholders engaged in nutrition and food safety.
Map existing initiatives, current interventions, and future projects related to nutrition and food safety among all stakeholders.
Map existing policies and legislation related to nutrition and food safety.
Support information sharing among professionals, institutions, and relevant stakeholders.
Update the existing situation analysis related to nutrition in Lebanon.
Activate and expand a national platform on nutrition to plan, coordinate, and implement initiatives that support healthy eating in Lebanon.
Map current research and academic groups working on topics related to the promotion of healthy diets and encourage collaboration among them.
Encourage leadership development and continuous professional development among dietitians and nutrition professionals.
Develop a national plan and strategy for promoting healthy eating in Lebanon.
This axis focuses on institutionalizing the use of evidence in health care decision-making and promoting health equity through health technology assessment, review of health economics guidelines, and assessment of the economic and clinical burden of acute and chronic diseases, with special focus on infections and antimicrobial resistance.
It aims to bridge the gap between research and implementation by developing national guidelines for the conduct and dissemination of health economics studies, including cost-of-illness studies and health-economic evaluations.
The axis also aims to generate standardized resource-use measures and country-specific utility weights, in addition to establishing a societal willingness-to-pay threshold.
Endorse the core competencies’ framework for pharmacists in Lebanon and disseminate it to universities that have pharmacy education programs.
Endorse the post-graduate general and specialized competencies frameworks and disseminate them to universities that have advanced pharmacy education programs.
Endorse researcher and preceptor competencies frameworks and disseminate them to universities that have pharmacy or post-pharmacy education programs.
Endorse the pharmacy specialties titles and credentialing conditions.
Endorse the Good Pharmacy Practice standards for community pharmacy practice accreditation and proceed with planning implementation (in collaboration with relevant stakeholders).
Support the pharmacy education accreditation project already in progress with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (in collaboration with academia).
Discuss changes to the colloquium examination and support implementation of any law or process that would reduce the number of pharmacy graduates.
Proceed with the medication safety and pharmacovigilance program, in collaboration with the Lebanese University and all professional orders.
Proceed with the electronic Patient Profile project, and optimize it to reach Medication Therapy Management by the pharmacist in both community and hospital settings.
Collaborate with professional orders to promote aspects of practice related to public health and community health (antibiotics resistance, dental care, smoking cessation, chronic diseases prevention, vaccination promotion, participation in research…).
Optimize the pricing processes by initiating discussions with relevant authorities.
Discuss generics approval and prescribing processes with relevant authorities.
Discuss the current situation of hospital and clinical pharmacists and possible improvements in their practice.
Support the global standards for the initial education of professional nurses in Lebanon and disseminate them to universities that have nursing education programs.
Promote the progressive nature of education and lifelong learning for nurses.
Endorse the use of evidence in the nursing profession and enable the development of clinical reasoning, problem solving, and critical thinking in nursing programs.
Encourage leadership ability and continuing professional development among nurses.
Assess emotional intelligence among nurses in Lebanese practice and evaluate its impact on the workplace.
Make better use of accreditation programs to improve the working environment for nurses, in collaboration with health care managers and relevant stakeholders.
Discuss and support the implementation of processes that would increase the number of nursing science graduates, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
Explore the factors contributing to or preventing turnover and fatigue among nurses working within hospital systems.
Collaborate with the Order of Nurses to promote aspects of nursing practice related to public and community health, including chronic disease prevention, vaccination promotion, and participation in research.
Make better use of accreditation programs to improve the work environment for nurses, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
Optimize the role of nurses in prevention processes by initiating discussions with relevant authorities.
Discuss the current situation of nurses working in hospitals and identify possible improvements in their professional practice.
Develop a practical program in collaboration with the Order of Nurses to help newly graduated nursing students bridge classroom learning with clinical practice and transition smoothly into professional nursing. Such a program may improve job performance and reduce occupational burnout among new nurses.
This axis focuses on institutionalizing the use of evidence in health care decision-making, and promoting health equity through health technology assessment, review of health economics guidelines, assessment of the economic and clinical burden of acute and chronic diseases with special focus on infections and antimicrobial resistance. It aims at bridging the gap between research and implementation by developing national guidelines for the conduct and dissemination of health economics studies (cost of illness and health-economic evaluation), and generating standardized resource-use measures and country-specific utility weights, in addition to a societal willingness-to-pay threshold.
Create a national multidisciplinary Health Technology Assessment division within the Ministry of Public Health.
Develop national policies and procedures for health technology assessment.
Establish a mandatory national surveillance and reporting system for communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Develop a methodology for data access, evaluation, and validation.
Integrate health technology assessment into drug registration processes and reimbursement strategies.
Create disease-related groups to support health care planning, evaluation, and resource allocation.
Review and update health economics guidelines.
This axis focuses on mental health, psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry. Topics include studies related to diagnosis, screening, and treatment of mental diseases in addition to generating and validating mental health scales and scores.
Spread awareness among mental health professionals and researchers to use validated questionnaires, including the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), to estimate the overall severity of schizophrenia among patients in Lebanon.
Spread awareness among mental health professionals and researchers to use validated questionnaires, including the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, to estimate the overall severity of depression among patients in Lebanon.
Inform and educate mental health professionals about the prevalence of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in patients with schizophrenia and help them recognize its potential effects on social relationships, quality of life, and memory functioning.
Inform mental health professionals that psychosis may be considered a severity indicator in bipolar disorder, with clinical improvement and remission occurring in response to appropriate pharmacotherapy.
Spread awareness among mental health professionals about factors affecting Quality of Life (QOL) among patients with addiction and emphasize the need for strategic interventions to improve health-related quality of life in individuals with substance abuse.
Help mental health professionals understand factors associated with discriminatory attitudes and support policy makers in addressing homophobia through evidence-based approaches.
Spread awareness among mental health professionals about the relationship between dysfunctional cognitive schemas developed during childhood and adolescence and the development of Stockholm syndrome among female victims of domestic violence.
Inform mental health professionals about factors that may influence excessive cosmetic use to conceal underlying psychological concerns and consider these factors in the psychotherapeutic care of patients presenting with dissatisfaction related to self-image.