the formulation of global health policy is political; and all institutions operating in the global health landscape are political. this is because policies and institutions inevitably represent certain values, reflect particular ideologies, and preferentially serve some interests over others. this may be expressed explicitly and consciously; or implicitly and unconsciously. but it’s important t...

The recent emphasis on preparedness has created heightened expectations and has raised questions about the extent to which U.S. public health systems have evolved in recent years. This paper describes how public health preparedness is transforming public health agencies. Key signs of change include new partnerships, changes in the workforce, new technologies, and evolving organizational structu...

Veterinary education serves as the foundation on which a country can build effective Veterinary Services (VS). In addition, an appropriately well-educated animal health workforce will be better poised to actively participate in and advance good governance practices. Good governance, in turn, will lead to improved animal and veterinary public heath infrastructures and help advance economic devel...

At a crossroads, global public health surveillance exists in a fragmented state. Slow to detect, register, confirm, and analyze cases of public health significance, provide feedback, and communicate timely and useful information to stakeholders, global surveillance is neither maximally effective nor optimally efficient. Stakeholders lack a globa surveillance consensus policy and strategy; offic...

the global health agenda has been dominating the current global health policy debate. furthermore, it has compelled countries to embrace strategies for tackling health inequalities in a wide range of public health areas. the article by robert and colleagues highlights that although globalization has increased opportunities to share and spread ideas, there is still great asymmetry of power accor...

International Food Policy Research Institute, Development Strategy and Governance Division, Washington, DC, USA, Duke University, Sanford School of Public Policy, Durham, NC, USA, University of California, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, San Francisco, CA, USA, The First Hospital of Tsinghua University, Beijing, China and Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Ca...

Louise G. Trubek INTRODUCTION Health care reform is underway. To resolve longstanding health care problems, reformers are using new technologies, revising the role of public agencies, expanding the use of information, and creating flexible and participatory tools. These processes are different from previous understandings of health care governance. They are based on an emerging set of practices...

in this paper we emphasize the importance of questioning the global validity of significant concepts underpinning global health policy. this implies questioning the concept of global health as such and accepting that there is no global definition of the global. further, we draw attention to ‘quality’ and ‘empowerment’ as examples of world-forming concepts. these concepts are exemplary for the g...

CONTEXT Public health practice is information-intensive and information-driven. Public health informatics is a nascent discipline, and most public health practitioners lack necessary skills in this area. OBJECTIVE To describe the staff development needs of local health departments (LHDs) related to informatics. DESIGN Data came from the 2015 Informatics Capacity and Needs Assessment Survey,...

BACKGROUND Maternal death reviews have been utilized in several countries as a means of identifying social and health care quality issues affecting maternal survival. From 2005 to 2009, a standardized community-based maternal death inquiry and response initiative was implemented in eight Indian states with the aim of addressing critical maternal health policy objectives. However, state-specific...