Abstract

We are pleased to present the new issue of Value in Health Regional Issues focusing on Central and Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and Africa (CEEWAA). As many of you may know, all articles published in Value in Health Regional Issues are now indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed soon after they are accepted for publication and published online in the journal. Value in Health Regional Issues was established in 2012, and is therefore not yet indexed in Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports. However, an application for indexing and impact factor has been submitted and is currently under review for inclusion in Journal Citation Reports.

As part of our strategic planning for Value in Health Regional Issues, we present in this issue the second part of the themed section on Drug Policies in Central and Eastern Europe, including reports from Estonia [1], Greece [2], Romania [3], and the Russian Federation [4]. The project was initiated and conducted by the ISPOR Central and Eastern European (CEE) Publication Network working group. As drug policies and legislations in CEE countries are rapidly evolving and changing, we hope to publish additional and updated reports from other countries in future issues of the journal. Similarly, we hope networks in other countries of Africa and Western Asia will move along this direction. The need for effective translation of drug and health economics research into health policy and clinical decision making is becoming increasingly important [5]. Despite this, several factors predict, facilitate, and hinder the utilization and translation of research evidence in health policy and practice [6]. In recent times, this has resulted in applying relevant theories such as Diffusion of Innovations theory to explain the phenomenon. Therefore, there are global and institutional efforts to facilitate the effective translation of drug policy and health economics research into health policy and decision making in practice, which is tremendous [7,8]. Value in Health Regional Issues and ISPOR are committed to dissemination of credible research evidence that is based on rigorous research methodologies and that addresses the healthcare needs of the relevant countries.