Indian Health Outcomes, Public Health and Economics Research Centre

The Indian Health Outcomes, Public Health and Economics Research Centre (IHOPE) is an interdisciplinary center that has been set up through collaborations between the L. V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and Indian Institute of Public Health, Hyderabad. The IHOPE Journal of Ophthalmology aims to provide a platform for all scientists, researchers, and policy-makers to review the latest developments and contribute to the advancements in the field of eye health related to clinical research, big data analysis, health economics, and operations research.

Approximately 100 million people in the world are pushed into poverty every year due to health-care expenses. Universal health coverage is a broad aim for all policy-makers, and this requires infrastructure development, skill enhancement, and financing. People centric care, reaching the bottom of the pyramid, requires that health experts come together and collaborate to achieve the common goal of universal health coverage. Policy-makers and health service providers need research-based evidence and guidelines to achieve the task of universal health coverage, in the most cost-effective way.

Care providers are looking at major challenges to drive health systems in the future. Apart from creating clinical challenges, COVID-19 has forced care providers to innovate new models for appropriate delivery of care, as well as to evaluate new and efficient clinical trial designs. Digitization of health-care data, telemedicine, and remote care has challenged health-care providers to collaborate with technology experts to generate efficient and effective solutions to health-care problems. There are a lot of data being generated in the health-care system, but it has to be managed in a systemic fashion to be able to convert that data into information. Information should lead us to evidence, which would then have to be evaluated by policy makers in the context of the local health-care setting before implementing it in the population.

There are numerous journals in the field of clinical ophthalmology as well as basic research. However, the members of the IHOPE Journal felt the need for a journal which will guide policy based on multidisciplinary research among clinicians, scientists, public health specialists, and economists. The journal plans to publish original research articles, reviews, trial protocols, clinical guidelines, conference proceedings, apart from editorials, and perspectives. The editorial board comprises a panel of experts from various disciplines of eye health to provide their expertise and guidance for the journal. We hope that researchers and policy-makers consider the IHOPE Journal to disseminate new information, as well as use the knowledge to improve eye health in the world. This would indeed help us achieve the goal of Universal Eye Health coverage and deliver excellent, efficient, and equitable eye care services to all those in need.