Mini Symposium 2025 Dec 18 - Bai Li
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LEVERAGE: Guidelines for reporting the use of systems approaches in health studies and projects
Abstract
Bai Li, presented LEVERAGE: Guidelines for reporting the use of systems approaches in health studies and projects in the Mini Symposia series. Internationally, governments and inter-governmental organisations (particularly the WHO) are calling for systems approaches to tackle the most pressing and complex challenges such as pandemic preparedness, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), food insecurity and climate change. Although an increasing number of health studies and projects have utilised a systems approach in various subject areas, systematic reviews of these studies have consistently identified poor reporting and inconsistent/inaccurate use of terminology as two common issues. This lack of transparency and standardisation creates confusion for researchers, readers, journal editors, reviewers, funders, and policymakers, stifling the potential of systems science to inform effective solutions. To address this pressing need, LEVERAGE reporting guidelines were developed through a consensus-based Delphin study following EQUATOR’s guidance for developing health research reporting guideline. In the first half of this mini symposium, I will explain why the urgent need for these guidelines is clear and present the process for developing the LEVERAGE guidelines. In the second half of this symposium, I will invite participants to preview and use the developed guidelines in small groups facilitated by members of the LEVERAGE executive group. In this festive reason where reunion and celebration are the common language we speak, this mini symposium offers a friendly environment for scholars, specialists practitioners and other key stakeholders from various disciplines, methodological domains, specialist societies and sectors to share each other’s experience and perspectives in writing, publishing and using systems science. I hope this would be a welcomed continuation and extension from the LEVERAGE global forum and feedback workshop which was held in October this year. We welcome and value feedback from members and friends of the ISSS!
Short Bio
Bai Li is a global health scientist specialised in the development and evaluation of complex interventions and policies to tackle global challenges such as obesity, sedentary behaviour and climate change. She has co-authored with policy makers from 46 countries and led multi-nation research consortia to generate impactful scientific outputs used by international (e.g. WHO) and national authorities.
Bai is a member of the World Obesity Federation Policy and Prevention Committee which guides and shapes global obesity policies. She is an international leader in the advocacy, methodology and guidelines (development) of systems science methods in public health. She developed systems methods to understand Global Syndemic that co-exist and interact with each other in time and place (SYSTAM consortia) and leads the development of the 1st guidelines for reporting and writing the use of systems science methods in public health (LEVERAGE project). She launched and co-edited the 1st journal collection dedicated to systems approaches to tackling global nutrition challenges, and chaired international symposia in different countries to share the empirical experience of applying systems science in health research.
In 2025, Bai published ‘The iceberg of childhood obesity system - conceptualising levels of interventions through systems thinking’, supporting the theme of 2025 World Obesity Day, and led World Obesity Federation’s Position Paper calling Heads of United Nations Member States to implement systemic actions to tackle obesity and other leading non-communicable diseases.
Bai's contributions to global health have been recognised by prestigious awards from the ISBNPA, The Lancet, UKSBM, SBRN and UKCO.