2015 Archives - WISH

Universal Healthcare Coverage

wish admin — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:54:01 +0000

Ensuring access to effective, quality health services, without the fear of financial hardship, is a basic human right. Through the leadership of several key international organizations, including the World Bank and the World Health Organization, there is now a growing global movement towards universal health coverage (UHC). This trend is essential if we are to support the one billion people who currently live without access to healthcare services and the hundreds of millions who are forced into poverty annually by out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure. The Universal Health Coverage Forum will focus on creating a robust, yet accessible framework laying out the key questions that senior policymakers should consider when attempting the implementation of UHC.

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Patient Safety

wish admin — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:52:39 +0000

Fifteen years on from the publication To Err is Human, patient safety is now well established as an imperative for policymakers and healthcare providers and practitioners. However, the prevalence of avoidable harm remains high throughout the developed world and healthcare still has much to do to match the safety record of other high-risk industries. This Forum will provide innovative approaches to improving patient safety, and the evidence behind them, that will enable policymakers to prioritize patient safety within their health systems, leading to reduced patient harm and more cost-effective healthcare.

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Mental Health and Wellbeing in Children

wish admin — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:51:16 +0000

Mental health, broadly conceived, is a key factor affecting whether children enjoy their lives and become flourishing adults. A sense of wellbeing can increase children’s ability to cope with life and the challenges they will face, both as young people and later in life. This Forum will tackle ways of promoting mental health in children in the family, in schools and in communities. It will also address the major issue of how children can be better helped when they experience mental health problems.

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Maternal and Newborn Health

wish admin — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:48:12 +0000

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) form a blueprint agreed by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions to meet the needs of the world’s poorest – by 2015. Three of the eights MDGs focus on challenges that directly affect women and children – decreasing preventable maternal, newborn and child mortality (goals 4 and 5) and reducing HIV, AIDS, malaria and other conditions that significantly affect women and children (goal 6). While there have been many achievements linked to the MDGs since 2000, there remain enduring challenges that must be acknowledged and solved with new and innovative strategies. This policy briefing is timed to coincide with the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will follow the MDGs in 2015. At this critical crossroad (the transition from MDGs to SDGs), it is vital that maternal, newborn and child health remain at the forefront of global and national health policies, programming and advocacy. The policy briefing aims to build the case for integrating policies, programs and services in ways that improve the quality and accessibility of care for mothers and newborns. For example, integration may take the form of offering newborn care counseling during antenatal visits or making contraceptive services available postnatally. The briefing also provides five recommendations for healthcare stakeholders who are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of mothers and newborns. The Panel discussion will put forward the case for policy and service integration and provide a platform for thought-provoking debate on both the critical issues and the opportunities that can be mobilized to ensure efforts to reduce maternal and child mortality remain a top priority. This special WISH policy briefing was written by a team led by Ana Langer, Maternal Health Task Force, Women and Health Initiative, Harvard School of Public Health and Joy Riggs-Perla, Saving Newborn Lives, Save the Children. The work undertaken for this policy briefing was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with WISH.

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Healthcare and Ethics: Genomics

wish admin — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:47:19 +0000

The potential genomics holds in transforming the future of healthcare is immense; however it may cause complex ethical debates and religious issues. This is why WISH will hold a special panel to discuss this particular topic at the 2015 summit. Co-organized with the Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics (CILE), a center of the Faculty of Islamic Studies (QFIS), the panel will focus on the development and implementation of genomics and the innovation and ethical challenges behind this revolutionary new approach to medicine.

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Diabetes

wish admin — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:44:00 +0000

WHO estimates that there are 347 million people worldwide (approx. 8.5 percent of the adult population) with diabetes and that by 2030 it will be the seventh leading cause of death. In 2004 an estimated 3.4 million died from the consequences of diabetes and over 80 percent of these deaths occurred in low-income and middle-income countries. Both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes are increasing. The common consequences of diabetes include damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves. The economic burden of diabetes is immense and in 2013 diabetes will take up 11 percent of worldwide health expenditure – $548 billion. Type 2 diabetes can be prevented (or at least delayed) by a number of simple lifestyle changes: remaining physically active, eating healthily, and not smoking. In addition there are effective treatments for both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, including insulin, other oral and injectable medicines, self-management support, blood pressure control and foot care. The Forum will make actionable recommendations to enable policymakers to more effectively prevent diabetes within their populations, and also to ensure effective treatment for those with the illness.

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Dementia

wish admin — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:41:48 +0000

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that in 2010 35.6 million people globally had dementia and this number is expected to almost double every 20 years. The very oldest members of society and countries where life expectancy is increasing most rapidly will be most affected by this growth. The costs of providing dementia care are substantial (and unsustainable) and a reliance on informal care in both high and low and middle income countries predominates. The G8 recently met in London to acknowledge the increasing burden of dementia and to call for a unified international approach to support global dementia innovation. They confirmed an ambition to identify a cure or disease modifying therapy by 2025 and committed to collectively increasing funding of dementia research in order to reach that goal. Dementia is a global priority and there is an increasing and urgent need to identify and disseminate innovative and cost-effective approaches for diagnosis and management. The Forum on dementia will focus on post-diagnostic support and treatment and examine innovative systemic, staffing and funding solutions to providing better care.

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Delivering Affordable Cancer Care

wish admin — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:40:38 +0000

Cancer is a global health priority. New figures from GLOBOCAN 2012 state that there were 14.1 million new cancer cases and 8.2 million deaths attributable to cancer in 2012, an increase of over 10 percent in four years, driven by the growth and the aging of the global population. At the same time, the cost of treating cancer is rising at an even faster rate: for example, in the US, cancer spending is estimated to have grown from $27 billion in 1990 to $90 billion in 2008, and is forecast to reach $157 billion in 2020. Meanwhile, more than 50 percent of all new cancers and two-thirds of the annual cancer mortality worldwide happen in low-income and middle-income countries, with this proportion expected to increase. A multitude of factors are driving unsustainable and dramatic cost inflation. The aim of the Forum will be to make actionable recommendations that might enable policymakers to ‘bend the cost curve’ and ensure sustainable access to cancer care.

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Communicating Complex Health Messages

wish admin — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 12:35:18 +0000

The communication of science, and health policy in particular, to the public is a major policy issue. Examples in diverse settings such as the MMR crisis in the UK, or messaging on the safety of vaccination in the developing world, demonstrate that the dissemination of accurate information on health policy matters is critical to improving population health and well-being. As well as public health messages, governments and health system leaders need to communicate the rationale and need for innovation and change in healthcare delivery models in a dynamic and fast-changing political, social and media environment. This Forum will examine the role of mass media and social media in societal debate on issues of health policy, and also consider the science of rumors with reference to health and healthcare.

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