Digital image management in a globalised world: opportunities and challenges

Good health for all populations is an accepted international goal [1], and there have been broad gains in life expectancy over the past century. However, the perspectives of how health is best defined vary considerably, and health inequalities between the rich and the poor persist. The prospects for future health depend increasingly on the relatively complicated process of globalisation [2]. In 2001, the WHO Commission on Macroeconomics and Health demonstrated that health is not only a benefit of development, but is also indispensable to development [3]. Illness all too often leads to "medical poverty traps" [4], creating a vicious circle of poor nutrition, forgone education, and still more illness. All of these then undermine the economic growth that is necessary, although not sufficient, for widespread improvements in health status. The promotion of health equity is defined in the literature as "the absence of disparities in health (and in its key social determinants) that are systematically associated with social advantage/disadvantage". The Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), established by the WHO, are considered the fairest and most effective way to improve health for all people and reduce inequalities. Social determinants of health, broadly stated, are the conditions under which people live and work which affect their opportunities to lead healthy lives. Good medical care is vital, but unless the root social causes that undermine people's health are addressed, the opportunity for well-being will not be achieved. Globalisation is a term with multiple hotly contested definitions and meanings. And it is generally an umbrella term for a complex series of economic, social, technological, cultural and political changes across the globe. The most appropriate definition of globalisation would be "a process of greater integration within the world economy through movements of goods and services, capital, technology and (to a lesser extent) labour, which leads increasingly to economic decisions being influenced by global conditions" [5]. The outcome of globalisation is the increasing interdependence and interaction among people, companies, and governments of different nations, driven by international trade and made possible by innovations in information technology. Historically, companies in developed countries have led globalisation by pushing products and services into developing countries and emerging economies. Now, emerging countries are pushing their services into developed countries with quality labour and services at low cost. In short, globalisation has become a two-way street as both sides exploit each other's markets and economies, creating a virtual world labour and …