WHEN Hurricane Katrina turned toward Louisiana, children’s hospitals and pediatricians from around the nation mobilized to assist Children’s Hospital of New Orleans (CHNO) and other area hospitals with patient evacuation, supplies, volunteers, and equipment. The successful evacuation of 72 seriously ill children from CHNO, completed within 24 hours after the decision to evacuate was made, trans...

Congestive heart failure (CHF) definitions vary across epidemiologic studies. The Framingham Heart Study criteria include CHF signs and symptoms assessed by a physician panel. In the Cardiovascular Health Study, a committee of physicians adjudicated CHF diagnoses, confirmed by signs, symptoms, clinical tests, and/or medical therapy. The authors used data from the Cardiovascular Health Study, a ...

The National Heart Foundation of Australia assembled an expert panel to provide guidance on policy and system changes to improve the quality of care for people with chronic heart failure (CHF). The recommendations have the potential to reduce emergency presentations, hospitalisations and premature death among patients with CHF. Best-practice management of CHF involves evidence-based, multidisci...

OBJECTIVES Our objective was to determine the relationship between osteoarthritis (OA) and heart diseases (myocardial infarction (MI), angina, congestive heart failure (CHF)) and stroke using population-based survey data. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS). PARTICIPANTS Adult participants in the CCHS cycles 1.1, 2.1 and 3.1 were included. CCHS pr...

0605 The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (“the Global Fund”) was created to fi ght three of the world’s most devastating diseases. Since its creation in 2002, it has struggled with the diffi cult task of focusing on three diseases, and at the same time supporting the fragile public health systems that are supposed to implement this fi ght on the ground. Recent internal comme...

OBJECTIVES By using the Global Fund as a case example, we aim to critically evaluate the evidence generated from 2002 to 2009 for potential negative health system effects of Global Health Initiatives (GHI). DESIGN Systematic review of research literature. SETTING Developing Countries. PARTICIPANTS All interventions potentially affecting health systems that were funded by the Global Fund. ...

Corruption in the health sector has been a “dirty secret” in the health policy and international development community, but recent global activities point to a day when it will no longer be neglected as a key determinant of health. To further explore next steps forward, this commentary applies the Kingdon’s multiple-streams framework (MSF) to assess what opportunities are available to mobilize ...