We need to stop playing catch-up

We need to stop female genital mutilation!

Over the next decade around 30 million girls under age 15 are at risk of FGM/C. Given that there is no physical benefit for the girls and acknowledging that FGM/C involves physical, psychological, social and reproductive harm, we, along with major international and national governmental and non-governmental organizations find FGM/C a severe violation of human rights [1]. We must encourage vigor...

Playing Catch-up with Iterated Exponentials

Suppose that we have two animals that make the same number of strides per minute, but one of them makes larger strides than the other. If the strides of the smaller animal (the prey) have length a, and those of the larger animal (the predator) have length b, it is easy to see that a persistent predator will always be able to catch up with its prey. Let us assume that the prey starts one step ah...

As REMS Requirements Simplify, Participants Need To Catch Up.

For more than three years, regulators at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration worked to hammer out a common risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS) program for extendedrelease and long-acting opioids. These pain medications have a long history of abuse and each has had a REMS of its own. Now, with the FDA’s release of a comprehensive REMS program in July, 20 manufacturers have a common ...

Runaway TB epidemic--can we catch up?

We Need to Talk About Corruption in Health Systems

The health sector consistently appears prominently in surveys of perceived corruption, with considerable evidence that this has serious adverse consequences for patients. Yet this issue is far from prominent in the international health policy discourse. We identify five reasons why the health policy community has been reluctant to talk about it. These are the problem of defining corruption, the...