The MDG To SDG Transition: the role of hospitals and integrated primary care.

In 2016, the world will be moving from the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Regarding health-related goals, most of the funding in recent years has been focusing on disease-specific programmes and strengthening primary care; nevertheless, public health, health promotion, prevention, and controlling risk factors through a broad range of policy interventions, both within and outside the health sector, must be an important focus in the era of SDGs.

In this post, integrated health services are seen as a main factor to achieve the health-related topics in the SDGs. The author defends not only strong primary care services to deliver broad quality care, but also that these services should be integrated with essential hospital services. The article emphasizes that this kind of integration would be even more important in countries with a weak health system, in order to build a strong system that could face the ...

State humanitarian verticalism versus universal health coverage: a century of French international health assistance revisited

The French contribution to global public health over the past two centuries has been marked by a fundamental tension between two approaches: State-provided universal free health care and what we propose to call State humanitarian verticalism. Both approaches have historical roots in French colonialism and have led to successes and failures that continue until the present day. In this paper, the second in The Lancet's Series on France, we look at how this tension has evolved. During the French colonial period (1890s to 1950s), the Indigenous Medical Assistance structure was supposed to bring metropolitan France's model of universal and free public health care to the colonies, and French State imperial humanitarianism crystallised in vertical programmes inspired by Louis Pasteur, while vying with early private humanitarian activism in health represented by Albert Schweitzer. From decolonisation to the end of the Cold War (1960-99), French assistance to newly independent states ...

Managing In- and Out-Migration of Health Workforce in Selected Countries in South East Asia Region

There is an increasing trend of international migration of health professionals from low -and middle- income countries to high-income countries as well as across middle- income countries. The WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel was created better address health workforce development and the ethical coduct of international recruitment. This study assessed policies and practices in 4 countries in South East Asia on managing the in -and out- migration of doctors and nurses to see whether the managementet has been in line with the WHO Global Code and has fostered health workforce development in the region; and draws lessons from these countries. 

Globalization and health equity: The impact of structural adjustment programs on developing countries

Among the many drivers of health inequities, this article focuses on important, yet insufficiently understood, international-level determinants: economic globalization and the organizations that spread market-oriented policies to the developing world. One such organization is the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which provides financial assistance to countries in economic trouble in exchange for policy reforms. Through its ‘structural adjustment programs,’ countries around the world have liberalized and deregulated their economies. We examine how policy reforms prescribed in structural adjustment programs explain variation in health equity between nations—approximated by health system access and neonatal mortality. Our empirical analysis uses an original dataset of IMF-mandated policy reforms for a panel of up to 137 developing countries between 1980 and 2014. We employ regression analysis to evaluate the relationship between these reforms and health equity, taking into account the non-random selection and design of IMF programs. We find that structural adjustment reforms lower health ...

International cooperation in public health in Martinique: geostrategic utility for cancer surveillance in the Caribbean

Cooperation in public health and in oncology in particular, is currently a major issue for the island of Martinique, given its geopolitical position in the Caribbean region. The region of Martinique shares certain public health problems with other countries of the Caribbean, notably in terms of diagnostic and therapeutic management of patients with cancer. This study presents a roadmap of cooperation priorities and activities in cancer surveillance and oncology in Martinique.