Articles

How is Telemedicine perceived? A qualitative study of perspectives from the UK and India

Improvements in communication and information technologies have allowed for the globalisation of health services, especially the provision of health services from other countries, such as the use of telemedici...

Authors: Melisa Martínez Álvarez, Rupa Chanda and Richard D Smith

The Health Systems Funding Platform: Is this where we thought we were going?

In March 2009, the Task Force for Innovative International Financing for Health Systems recommended "a health systems funding platform for the Global Fund, GAVI Alliance, the World Bank and others to coordinat...

Authors: Peter S Hill, Peter Vermeiren, Katabaro Miti, Gorik Ooms and Wim Van Damme

'A major lobbying effort to change and unify the excise structure in six Central American countries': How British American Tobacco influenced tax and tariff rates in the Central American Common Market

Transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) may respond to processes of regional trade integration both by acting politically to influence policy and by reorganising their own operations. The Central American Commo...

Authors: Chris Holden and Kelley Lee

A review of health system infection control measures in developing countries: what can be learned to reduce maternal mortality

A functional health system is a necessary part of efforts to achieve maternal mortality reduction in developing countries. Puerperal sepsis is an infection contracted during childbirth and one of the commonest...

Authors: Julia Hussein, Dileep V Mavalankar, Sheetal Sharma and Lucia D'Ambruoso

Masculinity as a barrier to men's use of HIV services in Zimbabwe

A growing number of studies highlight men's disinclination to make use of HIV services. This suggests there are factors that prevent men from engaging with health services and an urgent need to unpack the form...

Authors: Morten Skovdal, Catherine Campbell, Claudius Madanhire, Zivai Mupambireyi, Constance Nyamukapa and Simon Gregson

Medical tourism and policy implications for health systems: a conceptual framework from a comparative study of Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia

Medical tourism is a growing phenomenon with policy implications for health systems, particularly of destination countries. Private actors and governments in Southeast Asia are promoting the medical tourist in...

Authors: Nicola S Pocock and Kai Hong Phua

The potential for bi-lateral agreements in medical tourism: A qualitative study of stakeholder perspectives from the UK and India

Globalisation has prompted countries to evaluate their position on trade in health services. However, this is often done from a multi-lateral, rather than a regional or bi-lateral perspective. In a previous re...

Authors: Melisa Martínez Álvarez, Rupa Chanda and Richard D Smith

Trust and the regulation of pharmaceuticals: South Asia in a globalised world

Building appropriate levels of trust in pharmaceuticals is a painstaking and challenging task, involving participants from different spheres of life, including producers, distributors, retailers, prescribers, ...

Authors: Petra Brhlikova, Ian Harper, Roger Jeffery, Nabin Rawal, Madhusudhan Subedi and MR Santhosh

Indian vaccine innovation: the case of Shantha Biotechnics

Although the World Health Organization had recommended that every child be vaccinated for Hepatitis B by the early 1980s, large multinational pharmaceutical companies held monopolies on the recombinant Hepatit...

Authors: Justin Chakma, Hassan Masum, Kumar Perampaladas, Jennifer Heys and Peter A Singer

The 'global health' education framework: a conceptual guide for monitoring, evaluation and practice

In the past decades, the increasing importance of and rapid changes in the global health arena have provoked discussions on the implications for the education of health professionals. In the case of Germany, i...

Authors: Kayvan Bozorgmehr, Victoria A Saint and Peter Tinnemann

Healthy lifestyle behaviour among Ghanaian adults in the phase of a health policy change

Many countries have adopted health policies that are targeted at reducing the risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases. These policies promote a healthy population by encouraging people to adopt heal...

Authors: Henry A Tagoe and Fidelia AA Dake

Fly-By medical care: Conceptualizing the global and local social responsibilities of medical tourists and physician voluntourists

Medical tourism is a global health practice where patients travel abroad to receive health care. Voluntourism is a practice where physicians travel abroad to deliver health care. Both of these practices often ...

Authors: Jeremy Snyder, Shafik Dharamsi and Valorie A Crooks

European health research and globalisation: is the public-private balance right?

The creation and exchange of knowledge between cultures has benefited world development for many years. The European Union now puts research and innovation at the front of its economic strategy. In the health ...

Authors: Mark McCarthy

Can NGOs regulate medicines markets? Social enterprise in wholesaling, and access to essential medicines

Citizens of high income countries rely on highly regulated medicines markets. However low income countries' impoverished populations generally struggle for access to essential medicines through out-of-pocket p...

Authors: Maureen Mackintosh, Sudip Chaudhuri and Phares GM Mujinja

State strategies of governance in biomedical innovation: aligning conceptual approaches for understanding 'Rising Powers' in the global context

'Innovation' has become a policy focus in its own right in many states as they compete to position themselves in the emerging knowledge economies. Innovation in biomedicine is a global enterprise in which 'Ris...

Authors: Brian Salter and Alex Faulkner

The creation of the health consumer: challenges on health sector regulation after managed care era

We utilized our previous studies analyzing the reforms affecting the health sector developed in the 1990s by financial groups to frame the strategies implemented by the pharmaceutical industry to regain market...

Authors: Celia Iriart, Tulio Franco and Emerson E Merhy

India-EU relations in health services: prospects and challenges

India and the EU are currently negotiating a Trade and Investment Agreement which also covers services. This paper examines the opportunities for and constraints to India-EU relations in health services in the...

Authors: Rupa Chanda

Where does public funding for HIV prevention go to? The case of condoms versus microbicides and vaccines

This study analyses the priorities of public donors in funding HIV prevention by either integrated condom programming or HIV preventive microbicides and vaccines in the period between 2000 and 2008. It further...

Authors: Anny JTP Peters, Maja Micevska Scharf, Francien TM van Driel and Willy HM Jansen

Enabling access to new WHO essential medicines: the case for nicotine replacement therapies

Nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) are powerful tools for the successful treatment of nicotine addiction and tobacco use. The medicines are clinically effective, supported by the Framework Convention on Toba...

Authors: Sandeep P Kishore, Asaf Bitton, Alejandro Cravioto and Derek Yach

Organised crime and the efforts to combat it: a concern for public health

This paper considers the public health impacts of the income-generating activities of organised crime. These range from the traditional vice activities of running prostitution and supplying narcotics, to the n...

Authors: Lucy Reynolds and Martin McKee

Laboratory based surveillance of travel-related Shigella sonnei and Shigella flexneri in Alberta from 2002 to 2007

Between 2002 and 2007, travel related cases of Shigella sonnei and S. flexneri in Alberta, Canada were acquired from Central America, the Indian subcontinent and North America. Of this group, resistance to ciprof...

Authors: Steven J Drews, Chris Lau, Marnie Andersen, Christina Ferrato, Kim Simmonds, Liala Stafford, Bev Fisher, Doug Everett and Marie Louie

Rethinking the 'global' in global health: a dialectic approach

Current definitions of 'global health' lack specificity about the term 'global'. This debate presents and discusses existing definitions of 'global health' and a common problem inherent therein. It aims to pro...

Authors: Kayvan Bozorgmehr

Turning a blind eye: the mobilization of radiology services in resource-poor regions

While primary care, obstetrical, and surgical services have started to expand in the world's poorest regions, there is only sparse literature on the essential support systems that are required to make these op...

Authors: Duncan Smith-Rohrberg Maru, Ryan Schwarz, Jason Andrews, Sanjay Basu, Aditya Sharma and Christopher Moore

Financing the Millennium Development Goals for health and beyond: sustaining the 'Big Push'

Many of the Millennium Development Goals are not being achieved in the world's poorest countries, yet only five years remain until the target date. The financing of these Goals is not merely insufficient; curr...

Authors: Gorik Ooms, David Stuckler, Sanjay Basu and Martin McKee

Is globalization healthy: a statistical indicator analysis of the impacts of globalization on health

It is clear that globalization is something more than a purely economic phenomenon manifesting itself on a global scale. Among the visible manifestations of globalization are the greater international movement...

Authors: Pim Martens, Su-Mia Akin, Huynen Maud and Raza Mohsin

The hope and the promise of the UN Resolution on non-communicable diseases

Authors: George Alleyne, David Stuckler and Ala Alwan

Framing health and foreign policy: lessons for global health diplomacy

Global health financing has increased dramatically in recent years, indicative of a rise in health as a foreign policy issue. Several governments have issued specific foreign policy statements on global health...

Authors: Ronald Labonté and Michelle L Gagnon

A renewed focus on primary health care: revitalize or reframe?

The year 2008 celebrated 30 years of Primary Health Care (PHC) policy emerging from the Alma Ata Declaration with publication of two key reports, the World Health Report 2008 and the Report of the Commission o...

Authors: Mrigesh Bhatia and Susan Rifkin

Water and sanitation infrastructure for health: The impact of foreign aid

The accessibility to improved water and sanitation has been understood as a crucial mechanism to save infants and children from the adverse health outcomes associated with diarrheal disease. This knowledge sti...

Authors: Marianne J Botting, Edoye O Porbeni, Michel R Joffres, Bradley C Johnston, Robert E Black and Edward J Mills

Health and historical levels of freedom

The link between political freedom and health is unclear. We aimed to determine the association by exploring the relationship of historical and cumulative freedom levels with important health outcomes.

Authors: Samantha L Biggs, Evelyn M Dell, Vanessa L Dixon, Michel R Joffres, Chris Beyrer, Kumanan Wilson, James J Orbinski and Mills J Edward

The role and challenges of the food industry in addressing chronic disease

Increasingly, food companies play an important role in stemming the rising burden of nutrition-related chronic diseases. Concrete actions taken by these companies include global public commitments to address f...

Authors: Derek Yach, Mehmood Khan, Dondeena Bradley, Rob Hargrove, Stephen Kehoe and George Mensah

Intervening in global markets to improve access to HIV/AIDS treatment: an analysis of international policies and the dynamics of global antiretroviral medicines markets

Universal access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in low- and middle-income countries faces numerous challenges: increasing numbers of people needing ART, new guidelines recommending more expensive antiretrovir...

Authors: Brenda Waning, Margaret Kyle, Ellen Diedrichsen, Lyne Soucy, Jenny Hochstadt, Till Bärnighausen and Suerie Moon

"For someone who's rich, it's not a problem". Insights from Tanzania on diabetes health-seeking and medical pluralism among Dar es Salaam's urban poor

The prevalence of chronic non-communicable disease, such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), is rising worldwide. In Africa, T2DM is primarily affecting those living in urban areas and increasingly affecting t...

Authors: Marie Kolling, Kirsty Winkley and Mette von Deden

Why are we fat? Discussions on the socioeconomic dimensions and responses to obesity

This paper draws together contributions to a scientific table discussion on obesity at the European Science Open Forum 2008 which took place in Barcelona, Spain. Socioeconomic dimensions of global obesity, inc...

Authors: Geof Rayner, Mabel Gracia, Elizabeth Young, Jose R Mauleon, Emilio Luque and Marta G Rivera-Ferre

Developing effective chronic disease interventions in Africa: insights from Ghana and Cameroon

Africa faces an urgent but 'neglected epidemic' of chronic disease. In some countries stroke, hypertension, diabetes and cancers cause a greater number of adult medical admissions and deaths compared to commun...

Authors: Ama de-Graft Aikins, Petra Boynton and Lem L Atanga

Tackling Africa's chronic disease burden: from the local to the global

Africa faces a double burden of infectious and chronic diseases. While infectious diseases still account for at least 69% of deaths on the continent, age specific mortality rates from chronic diseases as a who...

Authors: Ama de-Graft Aikins, Nigel Unwin, Charles Agyemang, Pascale Allotey, Catherine Campbell and Daniel Arhinful

Unplanned antiretroviral treatment interruptions in southern Africa: how should we be managing these?

Adherence to antiretroviral therapy is essential for maximising individual treatment outcomes and preventing the development of drug resistance. It is, however, frequently compromised due to predictable, but a...

Authors: Nina Veenstra, Alan Whiteside, David Lalloo and Andrew Gibbs

National and subnational HIV/AIDS coordination: are global health initiatives closing the gap between intent and practice?

A coordinated response to HIV/AIDS remains one of the 'grand challenges' facing policymakers today. Global health initiatives (GHIs) have the potential both to facilitate and exacerbate coordination at the nat...

Authors: Neil Spicer, Julia Aleshkina, Regien Biesma, Ruairi Brugha, Carlos Caceres, Baltazar Chilundo, Ketevan Chkhatarashvili, Andrew Harmer, Pierre Miege, Gulgun Murzalieva, Phillimon Ndubani, Natia Rukhadze, Tetyana Semigina, Aisling Walsh, Gill Walt and Xiulan Zhang

Psychosocial impact of sickle cell disorder: perspectives from a Nigerian setting

Sickle Cell Disorder is a global health problem with psychosocial implications. Nigeria has the largest population of people with sickle cell disorder, with about 150,000 births annually. This study explored t...

Authors: Kofi A Anie, Feyijimi E Egunjobi and Olu O Akinyanju

Sex work and the 2010 FIFA World Cup: time for public health imperatives to prevail

Sex work is receiving increased attention in southern Africa. In the context of South Africa's intense preparation for hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, anxiety over HIV transmission in the context of sex work ...

Authors: Marlise L Richter, Matthew F Chersich, Fiona Scorgie, Stanley Luchters, Marleen Temmerman and Richard Steen

Benefits of global partnerships to facilitate access to medicines in developing countries: a multi-country analysis of patients and patient outcomes in GIPAP

Access to medicines in developing countries continues to be a significant problem due to lack of insurance and lack of affordability. Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), a rare disease, can be treated effectively,...

Authors: Panos Kanavos, Sotiris Vandoros and Pat Garcia-Gonzalez

A surveillance summary of smoking and review of tobacco control in Jordan

The burden of smoking-related diseases in Jordan is increasingly evident. During 2006, chronic, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) accounted for more than 50% of all deaths in Jordan. With this evidence in hand, ...

Authors: Adel Belbeisi, Mohannad Al Nsour, Anwar Batieha, David W Brown and Henry T Walke

Within but without: human rights and access to HIV prevention and treatment for internal migrants

Worldwide, far more people migrate within than across borders, and although internal migrants do not risk a loss of citizenship, they frequently confront significant social, financial and health consequences, ...

Authors: Katherine Wiltenburg Todrys and Joseph J Amon

Enhancing global control of alcohol to reduce unsafe sex and HIV in sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa carries a massive dual burden of HIV and alcohol disease, and these pandemics are inextricably linked. Physiological and behavioural research indicates that alcohol independently affects dec...

Authors: Matthew F Chersich, Helen V Rees, Fiona Scorgie and Greg Martin

Exceptional epidemics: AIDS still deserves a global response

There has been a renewed debate over whether AIDS deserves an exceptional response. We argue that as AIDS is having differentiated impacts depending on the scale of the epidemic, and population groups impacted...

Authors: Alan Whiteside and Julia Smith

Transparency in Nigeria's public pharmaceutical sector: perceptions from policy makers

Pharmaceuticals are an integral component of health care systems worldwide, thus, regulatory weaknesses in governance of the pharmaceutical system negatively impact health outcomes especially in developing cou...

Authors: Habibat A Garuba, Jillian C Kohler and Anna M Huisman

Local suffering and the global discourse of mental health and human rights: An ethnographic study of responses to mental illness in rural Ghana

The Global Movement for Mental Health has brought renewed attention to the neglect of people with mental illness within health policy worldwide. The maltreatment of the mentally ill in many low-income countries i...

Authors: Ursula M Read, Edward Adiibokah and Solomon Nyame

Rethinking the conceptual terrain of AIDS scholarship: lessons from comparing 27 years of AIDS and climate change research

While there has recently been significant medical advance in understanding and treating HIV, limitations in understanding the complex social dimensions of HIV/AIDS epidemics continue to restrict a host of prev...

Authors: May Chazan, Michael Brklacich and Alan Whiteside

The production of consumption: addressing the impact of mineral mining on tuberculosis in southern Africa

Miners in southern Africa experience incident rates of tuberculosis up to ten times greater than the general population. Migration to and from mines may be amplifying tuberculosis epidemics in the general popu...

Authors: Sanjay Basu, David Stuckler, Gregg Gonsalves and Mark Lurie

An overview of cardiovascular risk factor burden in sub-Saharan African countries: a socio-cultural perspective

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are currently experiencing one of the most rapid epidemiological transitions characterized by increasing urbanization and changing lifestyle factors. This has resulted in an...

Authors: Rhonda BeLue, Titilayo A Okoror, Juliet Iwelunmor, Kelly D Taylor, Arnold N Degboe, Charles Agyemang and Gbenga Ogedegbe