Healthcare perspectives from The Economist Intelligence Unit

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Bringing healthcare to hard-hit areas in Bangladesh

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Rethinking Africa's healthcare paradigm

Although the African health establishment has tried to do the right thing by focusing on curative care, prevention has become an afterthought. Africa's healthcare paradigm must be changed, argues Dr Ernest Darkoh, co-founder of BroadReach Healthcare, an African-based health analytics and technical services firm.

Video interview

Dr Sandrine Claus of the University of Reading explains what microbial medicine means, some of its most promising applications, and why bacteria might one day replace pills as the main way to deliver medicine. 

Microbiome therapy

Closing in on microbiome therapy

The idea of manipulating the human microbiome to maintain or restore health is not new. Probiotics, or beneficial gut bacteria, have long been used to manage and prevent disease, even in the absence of conclusive evidence of their effectiveness.

Microbial drug factories

Turning microbes into medicine factories

Microbial medicine applies genetic engineering to the micro-organisms in our bodies to develop new treatments for disease. 

The human microbiome is the community of bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes that inhabit just about any part of our bodies.

Microbial medicine

The human body is not just an organism – it is also an ecosystem that plays host to trillions of bacteria. Scientists are now beginning to piece together the contribution that these micro-organisms make to the health of the individual which they inhabit, and the possibilities of new ‘microbial’ treatments for disease. 

In a series of content sponsored by Dassault Systèmes, the Economist Intelligence Unit will be exploring the mammoth task that researchers ahead of them - mapping the human 'microbiome' - and the therapeutic applications that may arise as a result. 

The world toilet crisis can be solved

Globally up to 2.5bn people do not have access to proper sanitation. The dire situation of 1m children dying from diarrhoea every year alone requires an urgent call to action, argues Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organisation (WTO).

Measuring wellness

Report Summary

As US employers grapple with rising healthcare costs, many have established employee wellness programmes. Yet companies continue to struggle with low employee engagement and health ownership. In May 2014 The Economist Intelligence Unit conducted an employer and employee survey, sponsored by Humana, to explore the extent to which employers use health-related employee data to guide the operation and outcomes measurement of US wellness programmes. 

Mental health and integration

Mental illness exacts a substantial human and economic toll on Europe. World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates for 2012 show that in the 30 countries covered by this study, 12% of all disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)—a measure of the overall disease burden—were the direct result of mental illness. These conditions almost certainly also contributed to the large number of DALYs attributed to other chronic diseases. On the economic front, the best estimates are that mental illness cuts GDP in Europe annually by 3-4%.

Value-based healthcare

Adrian Thomas, vice-president of Global Market Access, Commercial Strategy Operations and Global Public Health at Janssen, a pharmaceutical company, discusses the implications of value-based healthcare for health systems and pharmaceutical companies.

Sub-Saharan African healthcare

Report Summary 

  • By 2030, chronic, non-communicable diseases will claim more lives in sub-Saharan Africa than will infectious diseases
  • Societal shifts which constrain certain healthy lifestyle choices and create opportunities for unhealthy ones are behind the rise in chronic disease incidence
  • Improving data, focusing on prevention and empowering patients through self-help groups can help to slow the disease trends

"We are in an epidemiological transition."

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