Wang, Huihui

Person:
Wang, Huihui

Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice

Fields of Specialization

HEALTH EQUITY, HEALTH FINANCING, HEALTH SERVICES DELIVERY, HEALTH WORKER PERFORMANCE, NUTRITION

Departments

Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice

Last updated: September 21, 2023

Biography

Dr. Wang, M.D., Ph.D., is a Senior Economist at the World Bank Group. She has 20 years of experiences working in low, middle- and high-income countries with a focus on supporting them to achieve Universal Health Coverage. Currently working with the global engagement unit, she is involved in several global initiatives related to transforming and improving primary health care, knowledge program on COVID-19 impact and response, as well as nutrition financing. She has also led the World Bank’s lending operations and technical support in health system reforms in East Asia, Europe and Central Asia and Africa regions. Huihui joined the Bank as a Young Professional in 2009. She holds a medical degree from Beijing Medical University, and M.A. in Economics and Ph.D. in Health Services and Policy Analysis from University of California, Berkeley.

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Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 23

Overview of the Republic of Korea Pharmacovigilance System: Learning from Best Practices
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-08-15) Wang, Huihui; Marquez, Patricio V.; Bieliaieva, Kseniya; Figueras, Albert
Building capacity in countries to conduct thorough surveillance of the use of all newly authorized drugs and vaccines, both brand name and generic, is a critical “public good” investment to ensure that drugs work correctly and that their health benefits outweigh their known risks. Korea’s pharmacovigilance system (PVS) is an international best practice. It is the result of a continuous and sustained government effort over the past three decades—from small pilot projects to a nationwide monitoring network—and offers valuable lessons to other countries on the vital role that such a system can play in ensuring the safety of drugs post-marketing. This report provides an overview of the Korean pharmacovigilance system, describing its main structural and operational elements, to monitor the safety and effectiveness of medicines. It draws from a review of available literature in journal articles, as well as from the websites and reports of Korean institutions.
Learning from the Republic of Korea: Building Health System Resilience
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-08-15) Wang, Huihui; Hwang, Inuk; Marquez, Patricio V.
The response of the government of the Republic of Korea to COVID-19 has been heralded as among the most successful. In the first two years of the pandemic, the government was able to keep the size of the outbreak relatively small and the death toll relatively low. Although the number of COVID-19 cases jumped significantly subsequently in 2022 and 2023 due to the spread of the more transmissible Omicron variant and a revamped testing regime that cast a broader net to detect infections, Korea had a much lower rate of total confirmed COVID-19 deaths per million population than other high income countries (676 in Korea, as compared to 3,379 in the United Kingdom, 3,331 in the United States, and 2,599 in France). The government achieved this relatively positive result without resorting to the highly restrictive measures that were adopted by most high-income countries, such as strictly controlling borders, shuttering businesses, or issuing severe lockdown or stay-at-home orders. Indeed, since the start of the outbreak in January 2020, the distinguishing features of the response in Korea include the government’s ability to mobilize swiftly, even in the early stages of the pandemic, to flatten the epidemic curve. This report dissects the COVID-19 countermeasures successfully adopted in Korea. The analysis draws out insights and lessons that may be relevant to other countries as they mount responses to ongoing crises and prepare for future public health emergencies.
Financing of Essential Public Health Services in the Caribbean Region: Case Study
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-09-21) Wang,Huihui; Marquez, Patricio V.; Theodore, Karl; Laptiste, Christine ; La Foucade, Althea; Scott, Ewan; Metivier, Charmaine ; Maharaj, Malini ; Brizan–St. Martin, Roxanne; Gittens-Baynes, Kimberly-Ann ; Edwards-Wescott, Patricia; Harewood, Heather; Beharry, Vyjanti
This study examines the expenditure by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries on the delivery of Essential Public Health Services (EPHS), in the context of the global response to COVID-19. In particular, the study focuses on financing arrangements enacted to ensure the predictability of funding and the sustainability in the level and flow of funds over the medium and long terms to carry out essential public health functions in Barbados, Grenada, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. The study also highlights the close, synergistic relationship between the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and its Member States.
Safety Monitoring of Medicines and Vaccines: A Situation Analysis
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-08-15) Wang, Huihui; Marquez, Patricio V.; Bieliaieva, Kseniya
Medicines, vaccines, medical devices, and blood are commonly used to treat disease. Medicines deserve a special focus because almost any medical visit ends with at least one prescription. So, monitoring the safety and effectiveness of therapeutic treatments and procedures is crucial at both the individual and community levels. In the case of medicines and vaccines, this surveillance activity is known as pharmacovigilance. Various methods are used to monitor the adverse and unwanted effects of medicinal products after they have received authorization for marketing, but reporting adverse reactions is the most widespread. The network of the Program for International Drug Monitoring (PIDM), which is supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), involves more than 170 countries. Its activities were initiated in 1968. The WHO-PIDM is the world’s most comprehensive network involving health professionals, patients, and manufacturers. This situation analysis describes relevant aspects of the PIDM, including achievements and weak points. The analysis is the product of a systematic revision of studies that focus on the WHO-PIDM activities and related findings published in different medical journals and listed in PubMed. Available information was selected and organized according to different topics and summarized and presented in the different sections of the report. As information for some countries and regions is lacking in the available literature, the report is not a comprehensive review of the pharmacovigilance across countries. The report, therefore, shows what is in place and highlight some of the difficulties faced by many countries, particularly low-and-middle income countries. It offers an overview of the (1) common points and failures; (2) the advantages of a national PV system; (3) the difficulties in scaling up and consolidating these systems; and (4) the advantages of regional collaboration. This report is part of a series of companion reports on pharmacovigilance, that provide a detailed overview and discussion on technical aspects and country and regional experiences.
Starting and Strengthening a National Pharmacovigilance System: The Case of Catalan Regional Activities that Propelled the Spanish Pharmacovigilance System
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-08-15) Wang, Huihui; Marquez, Patricio V.; Figueras, Albert; Bieliaieva, Kseniya
The Spanish System of Pharmacovigilance (SSPV) started its activities almost 40 years ago, in 1985. Of particular interest to others considering various options for developing pharmacovigilance systems is the fact that this case study highlights an example that built from the ground up and actually started in academia: the SSPV began as a research project in a university institution in Catalonia that was later adopted by the Ministry of Health. From these origins, a regulatory framework gradually allowed this initiative to expand to the whole country. In 1990, after technical training for the professional staff involved, responsibility for coordinating the system was transferred to a specially created coordinating center for the SSPV located in the Spanish Medicines Agency. This report reviews the origins of the system and its key features, followed by two examples of the system in action and closing comments on aspects and lessons that may be of particular value to others developing pharmacovigilance systems elsewhere.
Why is the Safety of Medicines Important for Resilient Health Systems? A Synthesis Report
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-08-22) Wang, Huihui; Marquez, Patricio V.; Figueras, Albert; Bieliaieva, Kseniya
This report discusses the importance of pharmacovigilance (PV) in contributing to building up resilient health systems. It is based on and summarizes the findings of a review of available literature on the topic and relevant case studies focusing on a set of country and regional experiences. Although indispensable in improving health outcomes, the administration and use of medicines may produce adverse reactions, requiring continuous monitoring to ensure that the benefits outweigh the risks. PV, which involves the systematic detection, reporting, assessment, understanding, and prevention of adverse drug reactions (ADRs), is an essential public health function, but it is often overlooked. The review suggests that successful PV programs are built on three essential pillars: statutory provisions that establish standards for PV centers and programs, well-trained health professionals and associated stakeholders, and engaged PV reporters using effective reporting systems. These pillars allow PV programs to be effective in three core activities: reporting adverse drug events (ADEs) and identifying signals, determining threats through a benefit-risk balance analysis, and taking appropriate actions. This is in addition to supporting various functions of a health system, such as national drug policy and regulation, the delivery of medical care, specific disease control programs, increasing the trust of the general public in the system, and promoting eco-PV. Aided by emerging opportunities for development through automation and machine learning, PV programs show immense potential to enhance the monitoring of patient safety and improve the use of medicines. The report offers policy considerations for countries and international partners in building PV capacity as an essential public function of a health system.
The Caribbean Regulatory System: A Subregional Approach for Efficient Medicine Registration and Vigilance
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2023-08-15) Wang, Huihui; Extavour, Rian Marie; Marquez, Patricio V.; Bieliaieva, Kseniya
This report focuses on the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), one of the three multi-national public health agencies in the world, that commenced operations on Jan 1, 2013, with the aim of delivering the functions of five previous regional health institutions through one platform for greater synergy and cost-effectiveness and as the principal institutional expression of Caribbean Cooperation in Health. The activities of CARPHA include the provision of a subregional mechanism that supports regulatory action to ensure access to safe medicines, such as the subregional system for reporting adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and substandard and falsified products (VigiCarib), and the regional post marketing drug quality testing program under the CARPHA Medicines Quality Control and Surveillance Department. Another relevant CARPHA activity is reviewing new medicines which want to enter the Caribbean market. This was especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the plethora of new vaccines. VigiCarib is a good example of a subregional approach to facilitate well-functioning post marketing monitoring activities, including PV. Although this is a relatively new program, it is well established, integrates lessons from more experienced regulatory authorities, and supports small economies without specific PV programs, thus helping ensure the safety, quality, and effectiveness of medicines and vaccines. VigiCarib can serve as a model in other parts of the world where a regional approach to strengthening regulatory systems is under consideration. However, a key lesson of the experience of CARICOM, is that regional initiatives are complex and require clear objectives, harmonization, respect for the individual countries and territories, and mutual trust.
Realizing a Regional Approach to Pharmacovigilance: A Review of the European Union Approach
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-08-11) Wang, Huihui; Marquez, Patricio V.; Bieliaieva, Kseniya
This report reviews the pharmacovigilance system of the European Union (EU) mapping out its structure and processes with any eye to features that may be of particular interest to decision makers in other regions as they weigh options related to creating a regional pharmacovigilance architecture for themselves. It begins with a review of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which plays a central role in the EU system, followed by an overview of the EU PV assessment and monitoring process and an example of the system in action regarding COVID-19 vaccines. It concludes with a summary several key insights of particular relevance for decision makers.
The Economic Burden of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Amongst Health Care Workers in the First Year of the Pandemic in Kenya, Colombia, Eswatini, and South Africa
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-24) Wang, Huihui; Munge Kabubei, Kenneth; Rasanathan, Jennifer; Kazungu, Jacob; Ginindza, Sandile; Mtshali, Sifiso; Salinas, Luis E.; McClelland, Amanda; Buissonniere, Marine; Lee, Christopher T.; Chuma, Jane; Veillard, Jeremy; Matsebula, Thulani; Chopra, Mickey
Health care workers (HCWs) face disproportionate risk of exposure and becoming ill in any infectious disease outbreak. SARS-CoV-2 has proven to be no exception: From Wuhan to Manaus, London to Tehran, and Delhi to Johannesburg, HCWs working in clinics and hospitals have been at heightened risk of developing COVID-19 disease, especially at the beginning of the pandemic when little was known about the then-novel pathogen. This study thus aims to estimate the economic costs of SARS-CoV-2 infections in HCWs during the first year of the pandemic from the societal perspective in four low or middle- income countries. The authors propose a framework to translate SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst HCWs into economic costs along three pathways, provide the estimated burden of HCW infections, and offer recommendations to mitigate against future economic losses due to HCW infections. The economic burden due to SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs makes a compelling investment case for pandemic preparedness, particularly the protection of HCWs, and resilient health systems going forward.
Walking the Talk: Reimagining Primary Health Care After COVID-19
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-06-28) Barış, Enis; Silverman, Rachel; Wang, Huihui; Zhao, Feng; Pate, Muhammad Ali
Almost half a century ago, policy leaders issued the Declaration of Alma Ata and embraced the promise of health for all through primary health care (PHC). That vision has inspired generations. Countries throughout the world—rich and poor—have struggled to build health systems anchored in strong PHC where they were needed most. The world has waited long enough for high-performing PHC to become more than an aspiration; it is now time to deliver. The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic has facilitated the reckoning for that shared failure—but it has also created a once-in-a-generation opportunity for transformational health system changes. The pandemic has shown policy makers and ordinary citizens why health systems matter and what happens when they fail. Bold reforms now can prepare health systems for future crises and bring goals such as universal health coverage within reach. PHC holds the key to these transformations. To fulfill that promise, however, the walk has to finally match the talk. Walking the Talk: Reimagining Primary Health Care after COVID-19 outlines how to get there. It charts an agenda to reimagined, fit-for-purpose PHC. It asks three questions about health systems reform built around PHC: Why? What? How? The characteristics of high-performing PHC are precisely those that are most critical for managing the pressures coming to bear on health systems in the post-COVID world. The challenges include future outbreaks and other emergent threats, as well as long-term structural trends that are reshaping the environments in which systems operate in noncrisis times. Walking the Talk highlights three sets of megatrends that will increasingly affect health systems in the coming decades: • Demographic and epidemiological shifts • Changes in technology • Citizens’ evolving expectations for health care. Reimagined PHC systems will be equipped through optimized system design, financing, and delivery to ensure high-quality services, care to address patients’ needs, fairness and accountability, and resilient systems.