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Showing results for tags 'Global health'.
Found 126 results
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Content ArticleThe USA President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology have released their report to the US President, Joe Biden, on patient safety. The report contains recommendations aimed at dramatically improving patient safety in Amercia.
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Content ArticleThe number of under-50s worldwide being diagnosed with cancer has risen by nearly 80% in three decades, according to the largest study of its kind. Global cases of early onset cancer increased from 1.82 million in 1990 to 3.26 million in 2019, while cancer deaths of adults in their 40s, 30s or younger grew by 27%. More than a million under-50s a year are now dying of cancer, the research reveals. Experts are still in the early stages of understanding the reasons behind the rise in cases. The authors of the study, published in BMJ Oncology, say poor diets, alcohol and tobacco use, physical inactivity and obesity are likely to be among the factors. “Since 1990, the incidence and deaths of early onset cancers have substantially increased globally,” the report says. “Encouraging a healthy lifestyle, including a healthy diet, the restriction of tobacco and alcohol consumption and appropriate outdoor activity, could reduce the burden of early onset cancer.”
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Content ArticleWidening health inequities are leading to decreasing trust in institutions, reinforcing social fractures and leaving excluded communities further behind. Narrowing the health gap made worse by the pandemic is not only a matter of social justice, but essential to build trust, social cohesion and economic resilience. This report by the World Health Organization (WHO) explores the interrelationships between health, the economy and social capital. It examines how governments can work to build social cohesion and invest in people’s health to improve resilience and promote an equitable recovery. It outlines five solutions to reach those who are affected the most by health inequalities: those who live precarious, marginalised lives.
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Content ArticleThe Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals address patient care and safety to give healthcare organisations a framework for improvement. This article from the University of Southern California takes a look at the current National Patient Safety Goals, the role of healthcare administration in patient safety, strategies to implement safety goals in hospitals and evaluating the effectiveness of safety goals.
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Content ArticleThe Patient Safety Movement Foundation offers a unique educational opportunity for healthcare professionals around the world to expand their knowledge in the theory and practice of patient safety. Please apply to this fellowship programme from the link if you are interested in joining the 2024 cohort of fellows. Application deadline is 1 August 2023.
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Content ArticleVideo of the 10th Annual World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit presentations. The event fostered a high-level exchange of ideas and initiatives to improve global patient safety with expert speakers and panelists, inspiring messages from hospital executives, and the sharing of tragic patient stories. The programme ignited further momentum to reach ZERO harm. You can view all the speaker presentations by clicking on the image below. There is also a link to the Patient Safety Movement Foundation website with all the presentations at the end of the page.
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Content ArticleThis study in the Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management aimed to assess the patient safety situation in Ghana across the World Health Organization's (WHO’s) 12 action areas of patient safety. The authors used interviews and observation including a WHO adapted questionnaire across 16 selected hospitals, including two teaching hospitals selected from the northern and southern parts of the Ghana. The key strength identified in the patient safety situational analysis was knowledge and learning in patient safety, while patient safety surveillance was the weakest action area identified. There were also weaknesses in areas such as national patient policy, healthcare associated infections, surgical safety, patient safety partnerships and patient safety funding.
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Content ArticleThe King's Fund compared the healthcare systems in different countries by doing three things: Reviewed the research literature and assessed previous attempts to rank and compare health care systems. Interviewed academic experts in international health care policy and experts who had extensive knowledge of the UK, German and Singaporean healthcare systems. Analysed the latest quantitative performance data for the UK health care system and the health systems of 18 higher-income peer countries. They analysed data in three main domains: the context the health system operates in (eg, the health status and behaviours of the population) the resources a health system has (eg, levels of staffing, equipment and health care spending) how well the health care systems uses its resources and what it achieves as a result (eg, measures of efficiency in delivering services, quality of care, financial protection from the costs of ill health, and health care outcomes).
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Content ArticleIn this article in the New Yorker, Lucy Easthope, who has worked on major emergencies since 9/11, says that small interventions can make a significant difference.
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Content ArticleRace and ethnicity have been associated with poor pregnancy outcomes in many countries. In the UK, the rates of baby death and stillbirth among Black and Asian mothers are double those for White women. Most studies examine trends for individual countries. This large database study explored how race and ethnicity is linked to pregnancy outcomes in wealthy countries. Key findings Black women consistently had worse outcomes than White women across the globe. Hispanic women were three times more likely to experience baby death compared with White women. South Asian women had an increased risk of early birth and having a baby with an unexpectedly low weight (small for the length of pregnancy) compared with White women. Racial disparities in some outcomes were found in all regions. The researchers call for a global, joined-up approach to tackling disparities. Breaking down barriers to care for ethnic minorities, particularly Black women, could help. More research is needed to understand why outcomes are for worse for ethnic minorities. The researchers recommend routine collection of data on race and ethnicity. The link below takes you to the Plain English summary of the research, you can also view the full research study.
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Content ArticleMultisectoral efforts to influence behaviours around healthy diet and exercise, while essential, have been insufficient to halt the rising prevalence of obesity. While these efforts must continue and escalate, it is now imperative to also deliver a corresponding health system response which ensures that services to prevent, treat and manage the disease are universally available, accessible, affordable, and sustainable. WHO “Health service delivery framework for prevention and management of obesity” offers a way forward.
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Content ArticleIn this letter to The Lancet, Thomas Cueni, Director General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations argues that the need to focus on equitable rollout of vaccines in the event of a future pandemic is a key global health priority. He proposes that Governments, pharma companies and other stakeholders should focus on the challenges that led to the inequitable rollout of vaccines, which he identifies as vaccine nationalism and need for more diverse manufacturing. He highlights an industry proposal for equitable response to future pandemics supported by vaccine manufacturers and biotechnologies. the proposal involves manufacturers setting aside a percentage of pandemic tools for allocation to susceptible populations in low-income countries.
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Content ArticleThe world is facing challenges emerging from multiple crises, including pandemics, wars and climate change. Against this backdrop, the Government of Japan will host the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in Hiroshima and the G7 Health Ministers' Meeting in Nagasaki, Japan, in May 2023. This article in The Lancet outlines key recommendations for G7 action to address these challenges through a human security approach and a transformation of global health architecture: Enhance resilience to public health emergencies by boosting country-led efforts to achieve universal healthcare Advance timely and equitable access to life-saving medical countermeasures as common goods Promote a multilayered approach to global health governance, including financing, that facilitates effective collaboration among state and non-state actors beyond the health sector at global and regional levels.
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Content ArticleThe Covid-19 pandemic has shown the power and potential of vaccination in real time. But it has also disrupted health services and caused supply chain challenges, resulting in stagnation and backsliding of routine vaccinations. For example, global coverage of the third dose of the diphtheria–tetanus–pertussis vaccine fell from 86% in 2019 to 81% in 2021—the lowest level since 2008. 25 million children missed out on life-saving measles, diphtheria, and tetanus vaccines in 2021. This editorial in The Lancet calls for a catch-up to return to pre-pandemic vaccination levels and looks at how this can be achieved.
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Content ArticleBrazil's community health workers (CHWs) have been critical in the effort to connect a majority of Brazilians to with primary healthcare, and have delivered significant impact across the country. They have reduced some of Brazil's socioeconomic and geographic inequities in access to healthcare and broadly improved health and social indicators. Find out more why they are exemplars in global health.
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Content ArticleOn 23–24 February 2023, the 5th Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety in Montreux, Switzerland, marked the first convening of global leaders to discuss patient safety for more than 3 years. The summit provided the opportunity to reimagine the way safe care is delivered using learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic. In this correspondence in the Lancet, Shaw et al. hopes we will look back at the Montreux summit as a turning point in patient safety: the catalyst for moving from plans to actions, so that at future summits we can discuss shared learning and evaluation of health systems that deliver safe care to all.
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Content ArticleThis consensus statement is founded on the policies articulated in numerous global and regional resolutions and decisions on patient safety adopted by governing bodies of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organisations. It is based on the proceedings of the WHO Policy Makers’ Forum, highlighting the central and specific role of policy-makers and healthcare leaders in implementation of the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 at all levels in all countries. Approximately 310 participants from around 90 countries across the world – including senior policy-makers, healthcare leaders, patient safety experts at national, subnational, regional, organisational and healthcare facility levels, patient safety advocates, and representatives of key international organisations – met (virtually) on 23–24 February 2022 to participate in the Policy Makers’ Forum organised by the Patient Safety Flagship unit, WHO headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland.
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for a stronger and more inclusive health emergency preparedness, response, and resilience (HEPR) architecture. At the 150th meeting of the Executive Board in January, the Director-General committed to develop proposals, in consultation with Member States, on strengthening the architecture for HEPR, and present these to the Seventy-fifth Health Assembly. Following the Concept note published on 24 March 24, this draft white paper outlines the Director-General’s proposals for strengthening HEPR, ahead of the World Health Assembly.
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Content ArticleAs of May 31, 2022, there were 6·9 million reported deaths and 17.2 million estimated deaths from COVID-19, as reported by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The Lancet COVID-19 Commission was established in July 2020, with four main themes: developing recommendations on how to best suppress the epidemic; addressing the humanitarian crises arising from the pandemic; addressing the financial and economic crises resulting from the pandemic; and rebuilding an inclusive, fair, and sustainable world. It has now published it's key findings and recommendations.
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Content ArticleIt is time to end all forms of stigma and discrimination against people with mental health conditions, for whom there is a double jeopardy: the impact of the primary condition itself and the severe consequences of stigma. Many people describe stigma as ‘worse than the condition itself’. This Lancet Commission report is the result of a collaboration of more than 50 people globally. It brings together evidence and experience on the impact of stigma and discrimination and successful interventions for stigma reduction. The report is co-produced by people who have lived experience of mental health conditions and includes material to bring alive the voices of people with lived experience. The voices whisper or speak or shout in the poems, testimonies and the quotations that are featured.
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Content ArticleThe World Health Organization (WHO) is actively exploring the role of compassion in quality health care. This Global Health Compassion Rounds (GHCR) highlighted the compelling evidence around compassion and quality care—not only for patients, but also for providers and health care organisations. Respondents offered their views of the implications of this evidence at national, district, and community levels of care.
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Content ArticleThis paper, published in HEC Forum, focuses on undergraduate student involvement in short term medical volunteer work in resource poor countries, a practice that has become popular among pre-health professions students. Authors argue that the participation of undergraduate students in global health experiences raises many of the ethical concerns associated with voluntourism and global health experiences for medical students. They propose a framework for guidelines and curricula, argue that universities should be the primary point of delivery even when they are not organising the trips, and recommend that curricula should be developed in light of additional data.
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Content ArticlePatient safety is one of the five priorities of the G20 Health Ministers' Declaration. Read the patient safety section of the Declaration below.
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Content ArticleThe world is on the cusp of an ominous development: bacteria are building resistance to existing antibiotics faster than new antibiotics are entering the market. An ever-widening cavity is opening up. This 'antibiotic gap', as experts call this development, marks the beginning of a new era in medicine. For the first time in recent history, we have to come to terms with the fact that not all bacterial infections are treatable anymore - with implications for all areas of medicine, from surgery to oncology. The World Health Organization has been using the term "silent pandemic" since the fall of 2021 because, unlike Covid, antibiotic resistance is creeping into our society unnoticed - but it is shaking up our healthcare system just as overarchingly. Silent Pandemic shows how countries, scientists and private initiatives around the world are networking and forming alliances, and what strategies and measures they are using to counter the advance of antibiotic resistance.
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Content ArticleThis Mental State of the World report from Sapien Labs provides insight into the mental wellbeing of populations around the globe in 2022 across 64 countries in the Core Anglosphere, continental Europe, Latin America, the Arab world, South and South East Asia and Africa based on responses to the Mental Health Quotient (MHQ) assessment in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Portuguese (European and Brazilian), German, Swahili and Hindi. The assessment provides an aggregate metric of mental wellbeing (the MHQ) as well as multiple dimensional views.
