An Introduction to Global Health Delivery

Author(s):  
Joia S. Mukherjee ◽  
Paul Farmer

The passion to be a force for change, to work on the positive side of globalization, and to be part of a movement for human rights has called many young people to the field of global health. This passion stems from the knowledge that the world is not okay. Impoverished people are suffering and dying from treatable diseases while the wealthy live well into their 80s and 90s. Before the 21st century, people living in countries marred by slavery, colonialism, resource extraction, and neoliberal market policies had little access to health care. Public health in the 19th and 20th centuries focused on low-cost prevention programs instead of advancing the human right to health. In the mid-1990s, as the AIDS pandemic swept the African continent, an activist movement sparked new investment in the delivery of health care. This movement emphasized the need for a constant supply of drugs, good laboratories, and trained health workers to mitigate health disparities. This book captures the momentum for the delivery of care that began in the AIDS era and the launch of the Millennium Development Goals through the Sustainable Development Goals. The global health era in this book is defined as beginning with the AIDS activist-led fight to move from prevention only to the delivery of comprehensive health care. By focusing on equity and social justice, An Introduction to Global Health Delivery: Practice, Equity, Human Rights fills a much needed gap and positions global health as a field set to fulfil the universal right to health.

Author(s):  
Joia Mukherjee ◽  
Paul Farmer

What has called so many young people to the field of global health is the passion to be a force for change, to work on the positive side of globalization, and to be part of a movement for human rights. This passion stems from the knowledge that the world is not OK. Impoverished people are suffering and dying from treatable diseases, while the wealthy live well into their 80s and 90s. These disparities exist between and within countries. COVID-19 has further demonstrated the need for global equity and our mutual interdependence. Yet the road to health equity is long. People living in countries and communities marred by slavery, colonialism, resource extraction, and neoliberal market policies have markedly less access to health care than the wealthy. Developing equitable health systems requires understanding the history and political economy of communities and countries and working to adequately resource health delivery. Equitable health care also requires strong advocacy for the right to health. In fact, the current era in global health was sparked by advocacy—the activist movement for AIDS treatment access, for the universality of the right to health and to a share of scientific advancement. The same advocacy is needed now as vaccines and treatments are developed for COVID-19. This book centers global health in principles of equity and social justice and positions global health as a field to fulfill the universal right to health.


Author(s):  
Bustreo Flavia ◽  
Doebbler Curtis FJ

This chapter describes the rights-based approach to health. This approach is based on the human right to health but looks beyond that right to focus on cross-cutting human rights principles for ensuring that health outcomes are achieved in a manner consistent with the foundational values of human rights. The rights-based approach to health is thus a key strategy in the development and implementation of health policy – based on principles of participation, equality and non-discrimination, transparency, and accountability. Examining these human rights principles, the rights-based approach has developed from rhetoric to practice, guiding health policy so as to provide for the highest attainable level of health for all. Nevertheless, the rights-based approach to health faces challenges as health and human rights address a larger global health landscape of state and non-state actors and find new meaning under the Sustainable Development Goals.


1998 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-408 ◽  
Author(s):  

AbstractThe right to the highest attainable level of health or, briefly, the right to health is a fundamental human right, solidly embedded in international human rights law. As with other human rights, this right creates corresponding obligations for States which they are due to respect, protect and fulfil.The right to health embodies both positive and negative contents rights, ranging from the right to adequate protection of health to the right to equal access to health care. In addition, the right to health obliges States to create conditions favourable to the achievement and maintenance of the highest attainable level of health.This article describes and analyses national and international case law with respect to these three components of the right to health in an effort to delineate the general contours of this right. It is argued that courts and other (quasi-)judicial bodies more or less explicitly acknowledge that States are required to ensure a minimum level of health protection, (equal access to) essential health care and satisfaction of basic human needs. From the existing body of case law touching on the right to health it remains, however, difficult to conclude how courts define the minimum core content of the right to health, let alone to gain further insights into the normative meaning of this right.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-311
Author(s):  
Marta Gionco ◽  
Eleonora Celoria

Seventy years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, access to health care remains strongly unequal. Undocumented migrants represent a particularly discriminated group in many countries. With the aim of investigating the root causes of such inequality, the article provides a theoretical analysis of the right to health care in the international and regional legal frameworks. On such basis, it examines, from a comparative perspective, the different health care systems adopted in France, Italy and Switzerland and the concrete obstacles to accessibility that ensue from each system. The study adopts a human rights-based approach which focuses on four interrelated dimensions of the principle of accessibility which are pivotal in linking a legal system to its application: non-discrimination, physical accessibility, economic accessibility and information accessibility. This article concludes by arguing that the adoption of a human rights-based approach centred on the principle of accessibility can contribute to a better understanding of the obstacles to undocumented migrants’ effective access to health care and therefore to the full implementation of their rights.


Author(s):  
Flavia Bustreo ◽  
Curtis F.J. Doebbler

This chapter describes the rights-based approach to health. This approach is based on the human right to health but looks beyond that right to focus on cross-cutting human rights principles for ensuring that health outcomes are achieved in a manner consistent with the foundational values of human rights. The rights-based approach to health is thus a key strategy in the development and implementation of health policy – based on principles of participation, equality and non-discrimination, transparency, and accountability. Examining these human rights principles, the rights-based approach has developed from rhetoric to practice, guiding health policy so as to provide for the highest attainable level of health for all. Nevertheless, the rights-based approach to health faces challenges as health and human rights address a larger global health landscape of state and non-state actors and find new meaning under the Sustainable Development Goals.


Author(s):  
Lawrence O. Gostin ◽  
Benjamin Mason Meier

This chapter introduces the foundational importance of human rights for global health, providing a theoretical basis for the edited volume by laying out the role of human rights under international law as a normative basis for public health. By addressing public health harms as human rights violations, international law has offered global standards by which to frame government responsibilities and evaluate health practices, providing legal accountability in global health policy. The authors trace the historical foundations for understanding the development of human rights and the role of human rights in protecting and promoting health since the end of World War II and the birth of the United Nations. Examining the development of human rights under international law, the authors introduce the right to health as an encompassing right to health care and underlying determinants of health, exploring this right alongside other “health-related human rights.”


2021 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisangela Argenta Zanatta ◽  
Ketelin Figueira da Silva ◽  
Clarissa Bohrer da Silva ◽  
Maria Luiza Bevilaqua Brum ◽  
Maria da Graça Corso da Motta

ABSTRACT Objective To know situations of vulnerabilities experienced by children and adolescents with cancer and their implications on health rights. Method A qualitative study, developed from 2017 to 2018, in two Santa Catarina hospitals. The interviewees were 11 family members of children/adolescents with cancer, a prevalent chronic disease identified in hospitalizations in 2017. A descriptive and thematic analysis was carried out based on the vulnerability and human rights framework. Results Among the chronic diseases, cancer was prevalent. Vulnerability situations were discussed considering the trajectories in the health care network, the challenges facing the care routine and the support networks for the exercise of the right to health. Final considerations Chronic diseases such as cancer require timely, decisive and effective responses from the health system with a view to maintaining human rights.


Author(s):  
Andres Garchitorena ◽  
Megan B. Murray ◽  
Bethany Hedt-Gauthier ◽  
Paul E. Farmer ◽  
Matthew H. Bonds

Randomized control trials (RCTs) are considered to be the gold standard for impact evaluation in international development and they are associated with a new era of evidence-based global health policies. However, there are inherent challenges in using RCTs to answer some of the most important questions in global health: why, if solutions are known, affordable at scale, and supported by existing evidence, do hundreds of millions of people lack access to essential health services? A lack of clarity on appropriate research methods for strengthening health systems has corresponded to a lack of investment in more complex and adaptive systems of integrated care delivery. This chapter reviews the use of RCTs in global health, highlighting major contributions, and addressing some pressing priorities in implementation research at a time when the Sustainable Development Goals emphasize the importance of sector-wide approaches, such as integrated primary care and universal health coverage.


Author(s):  
Iñaki Gutiérrez-Ibarluzea ◽  
James Cercone ◽  
Daniel Bronstein ◽  
Luis Tacsan ◽  
Pablo Morales ◽  
...  

INTRODUCTION:Faced with increasing financial challenges to the single-payer social security system and constitutional challenges supporting all citizen's right to health, Costa Rica has endeavored to introduce Health Technology Assessment (HTA) to ensure sustainability and promote the timely introduction of technology innovations in the health system. The Ministry of Health initiated a process to establish an independent, external institution providing leadership in the process of HTA.METHODS:Based on a survey developed by REDETSA/PAHO (HTA Network of the Americas/Pan American Health Organization), an inclusive method of stakeholders participation was used to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats regarding the implementation of an HTA entity. This was combined with qualitative research methods, market access situation analysis and the review of coverage and provision processes to define the elements for the new HTA institution. The “in-depth” interviews extended to manufacturers, ministry representatives, services providers, purchasers, patients and citizens representatives, judiciary court, professional colleges, academia and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Analysis of the professional competencies required for the HTA institution was carried out based on best practice analysis of international HTA institutions.RESULTS:The implementation of an HTA unit in Costa Rica was identified by all the actors as crucial to ensuring the health system's sustainability. Costa Rica's health system is based on all citizens right to health and all inputs required delivering health services, judicialization and access to health care have become a big issue. Two main issues were identified as essential to implement an HTA institution: the establishment of a clear framework to provide legal and financial support and the need to have sufficient independence from the Ministry and the Social Security, including maximum transparency and methodological robustness.CONCLUSIONS:The business model for the new HTA institution should consider the participation of all the interested actors. The HTA institution should bridge the gap between technology regulation and health technology management and aim to improve both processes. It should also provide third party independent evidence to inform the constitutional court around health care claims.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 557-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyson Schwab ◽  
John Langell

Background. The rapid adoption of smartphones and software applications (apps) has become prevalent worldwide, making these technologies nearly universally available. Low-cost mobile health (M-health) platforms are being rapidly adopted in both developed and emerging markets and have transformed the health care delivery landscape. Human factors optimization is critical to the safe and sustainable adoption of M-health solutions. The overall goal of engaging human factors requirements in the software app design process is to decrease patient safety risks while increasing usability and productivity for the end user. Methods. An extensive review of the literature was conducted using PubMed and Google search engines to identify best approaches to M-health software design based on human factors and user-centered design to optimize the usability, safety, and efficacy of M-health apps. Extracted data were used to create a health care app development algorithm. Results. A best practice algorithm for the design of mobile apps for global health care, based on the extracted data, was developed. The approach is based on an iterative 4-stage process that incorporates human factors and user-centered design processes. This process helps optimize the development of safe and effective mobile apps for use in global health care delivery and disease prevention. Conclusion. Mobile technologies designed for developing regions offer a potential solution to provide effective, low-cost health care. Applying human factors design principles to global health care app development helps ensure the delivery of safe and effective technologies tailored to the end-users requirements.


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