The Health Systems in Transition (HiT) profiles are country-based reports that provide a detailed description of a health system and of policy initiatives in progress or under development. They are produced by country experts in collaboration with the Observatory staff. The profiles are based on a template which, revised periodically, provides detailed guidelines and specific questions, definitions and examples needed to compile HiTs. 

However, there might be cases where certain information may not be available in a specific country, or where the template may be too restrictive in terms of how the information and analysis are presented. It is important to highlight that this template is intended to be used in a flexible way to allow authors and edtors to adapt it to their particular national context.
This edition of the template and questionnaire is a more comprehensive version of the template from 1999 and incorporates the many useful comments and suggestions from users and contributors.
The HiTs are building blocks that can be used to:
• examinedifferentapproachestotheorganization,financinganddelivery of health services and the role of the main actors in health systems;
• describetheinstitutionalframework,process,contentandimplementation of health and health care policies;
• highlightchallengesandareasthatrequiremorein-depthanalysis;
• provideatoolforthedisseminationofinformationonhealthsystemsand the exchange of experiences of reform strategies between policy-makers and analysts in different countries;
• assistotherresearchersinmorein-depthcomparativehealthpolicy analysis.