Global Health Impact Index

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Optimizing pharmaceuticals impact...

Web Tool Tracks Locations of Vital Drugs' Biggest Impact
December 15, 2015 - U.S. researchers have come up with a strategy they hope will motivate pharmaceutical companies, who spend billions yearly to develop medications for a host of illnesses, to direct their drugs where they will have the greatest impact.

It is called the Global Health Impact Index, and it is a simple way to track the places in the world where vital drugs can have the biggest impact. It was created by researchers at Binghamton University in New York and will soon be launched by the World Health Organization. The Web index, described in the journal PLOS One, is designed to identify companies that are doing the most to improve global health and those that are doing the least. Binghamton philosophy professor Nicole Hassoun, who helped create the Web tool, said that in the evaluation of each drug, "we look at three things: the need for the drug, how effective it is and how many people who need the drug can access it.”

Hassoun said about one-third of deaths globally are linked to poverty-related diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, "so if we can incentivize greater access [for] essential medicines, that could make a really big difference for people who are suffering around the world.”

Anwar, 4, gets treated for tuberculosis at the Kashi Vidyapith block hospital near Varanasi, India​

The index identifies three companies — Sanofi, Novartis and Pfizer — whose drugs are having the biggest impact on the three diseases. The website also tracks donations and companies that provide drugs at reduced cost to the world’s poorest individuals. Hassoun said that helps visitors see which companies are making drugs available to the world’s most impoverished people. “You see the total impact they are having on these different diseases with these medicines," she said. "It is simple and easy to understand, and you can see in a transparent way where we are having an impact and where we need to have a greater impact on global health.”

By identifying the companies that are most responsive to the needs of poor individuals, Hassoun hopes drug manufacturers that are not doing as well in providing affordable medications will be motivated to follow suit.

Web Tool Tracks Locations of Vital Drugs' Biggest Impact

 

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Global Health Funding Becoming Scarce...

Global Health Funding Becoming Scarce: Study
April 15, 2016 - People wasting away from AIDS or succumbing to malaria may become an increasingly common sight within the next 25 years, as funding for universal health care shrivels up.

Health economists warn that local and international aid is failing to keep up with global targets laid out in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The impact could be felt most in areas of sub-Saharan Africa with the greatest disease burden, but the looming health care crisis could affect 35 low- and moderate-income countries. Those countries could potentially fall short of a projected health care spending target of $86 U.S. dollars per person by 2040. The bleak assessment is suggested by two new reports by Joseph Dieleman, an economist at the Institute for Medical Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, Washington, published in the journal The Lancet. He and his colleagues analyzed data from 184 countries and found that poor countries are not keeping up funding necessary for universal health care, and international aid continues to stagnate.

A medic takes care of a malnourished child with malaria in a hospital in Bor, South Sudan​

Crunching global numbers

Currently, donor governments and organizations provide $36 billion dollars a year to health care, according to Dieleman — an amount that is continuing to grow, but not keeping up with health care demand. The same is true with spending by low-income countries themselves, which is rising by about 4 percent. "But [the] reality is the spending is already so low that 4 percent growth — while it's an increase and means more resources for health, especially in the low-income settings — it still means a significant gap," Dieleman said.

For example, funding for HIV treatment went up substantially — by 24 percent yearly — between 2000 and 2009. "So, remarkable growth,” Dieleman said. “But more recently, that 24 percent annualized growth rate has shrunk down to 1 percent. So, a drastic reduction in the amount of resources and how much is growing." He projects that 15 million people who are now taking antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS could be impacted by a shortfall in health care dollars.

A family member takes care of a patient at an HIV/AIDS care center in the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar​

According to research estimates, the average health care dollar per person 25 years from now will range from an average of $164 in low-income countries to more than $9,000 in wealthier nations. Health care spending is projected to be highest in the U.S. at more than $16,000 per person per year. At only $34 per capita, Somalia will provide the least amount of health care money for its citizens. One solution, according to experts, is for countries to increase tax collection on wealthier citizens and to give a lower priority to programs like fuel subsidies. The assessment of future public health spending was presented this week at a World Bank meeting on universal health care in Washington.

Global Health Funding Becoming Scarce: Study

 

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$20M/yr. could save 4 million lives...

Study: $5 Per Person Could Save 4 Million Lives
April 18, 2016 - Less than $5 a year per person can save four million lives a year, according to Johns Hopkins University researchers. Six researchers from Johns Hopkins, led by Dr. Robert Black, spent a year and a half studying health problems and needs in the world’s poorest countries.

Providing basic health care

They found that in 2015, pregnancy and birth complications resulted in the deaths of more than five million children and 300,000 women, 95 percent of the global population’s maternal and child deaths. The researchers focused on expanding access to specific basic care services, which would not only save the millions of lives lost, but cost roughly $4.70 per patient per year to do so. Black’s team created three health care packages that contain conditions and services relative to reproductive health, maternal health, newborn and child health and nutrition.

A severely malnourished child lies on а bed at MSF hospital Bentiu, South Sudan​

The packages include 66 health care treatments that fit in with how countries organize services like management of pregnancy and immediate care of a newborn, treating pneumonia, vaccines.Within each package, the team then selected particular services that were most effective and have the largest benefit. “We don’t build hospitals, sophisticated care units or diagnostic facilities for that amount of money,” said Dr. Black. But the study showed there are very affordable cost effective interventions that could be put in place now, with very limited additional resources. “We’re not claiming that we’ll prevent every death, but we’ll prevent more than half of the deaths and we’re talking about $5 per person in the countries that are affected,” Black clarified.

Prevention, implementation

The study shows that if 90 percent of the target population were provided with these services, it would prevent about 1.5 million newborn deaths, 1.5 child deaths, and nearly one million stillbirths and maternal fatalities. The services also includes improving access to contraceptives and reducing death rates by meeting the demand for family planning, which, alone, would decrease maternal deaths by 67,000. After the research was published, Black joined a Countdown to 2030 meeting.The initiative is an expansion of Countdown to 2015, a collective effort of many organizations, governments, U.N. agencies and health care associations aiming to accelerate the reduction of child mortality rates and improve maternal health, while tracking progress. “What we’re talking about is how to take the work forward in The Countdown,” said Dr. Black.

Udai Faisal, who is suffering acute malnutrition is fed by his mother Intissar Hezzam at al-Sabeen Hospital in Sanaa, Yemen.​

The 2005 U.N. goal was to cut the number of deaths by two-thirds by 2015, but while the numbers decreased, the goal was not met. The study was sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, which Black, commends for its dedication to helping improve the lives of others. “From the foundation there is a very strong commitment, but I hope it carries over to the countries themselves to sustain the work or to build on it, and to other funding agencies as well,” said Black. The periodical Lancet published the study and it was also presented at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health conference in San Francisco on April 09.

Study: $5 Per Person Could Save 4 Million Lives