Gerald Bloom



Overview

Dr. Gerry Bloom is a medical doctor and health economist with expertise in health policy, planning and finance. He is a Senior Partner and Director at Health Partners International.

Background and relevant experience

Based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) since 1985, he is the scientific coordinator of POVILL (Poverty and Illness), a major study of the relationship between illness and poverty and the performance of health safety nets for the poor in China, Cambodia and Laos and is the Health Convenor for the Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability (STEPS) Centre. He is also coordinator and senior researcher in the DFID-funded Future Health Systems Consortium.

His special interest is the management of health system transition in the context of rapid social and economic change. Areas of particular focus include the changing roles of government, health system innovations and processes of institutional development. His areas of expertise include Governance, Health, Politics and Power, Science and Society, Social Protection and Social Policy. He has worked for many years on health system development in Africa and Asia.

Gerry has undertaken a number of consultancies and research projects on health expenditure and finance and strategic management of sectoral change. Most recently, Gerry was Co-Director of the China Rural Health Project - Project Support Facility (PSF) which provided access to international experience and expertise in developing and testing cost-effective, sustainable models to improve the delivery of health services. Previously, he was a member of the core supervision team of the World Bank/DFID funded Rural Health Reform and Rehabilitation project and has completed several major studies of the impact of economic reform on health services in China. He is Co-Chairman of the China Health Development Forum and a Visiting Professor at the Beijing Normal University. He coordinates the IDS input into the DFID-funded Future Health Systems Research programme in China, India, Uganda, Bangladesh and Nigeria. His recent work in Africa includes a review of community health finance in Ghana and an evaluation of the poverty impact of the Malawi Social Action Fund.

Gerry has presented and published widely and has worked in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Laos, Bangladesh, Cambodia and China.