Changing outcomes and lives

Building Africa's healthcare leadership capacity

The main reason for Africa's weak healthcare systems is neither a shortage of policies, nor road maps, nor even funding. Lack of leadership capacity, reflected in corruption and flawed policy implementation, must be addressed, argues Dr Margaret Mungherera, immediate past president of the World Medical Association.

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%.

He's a stand-up guy

On the London trading floor of one of the big US banks, a few of the senior staff have taken to raising up their desks so they can stand up to work. Rumour has it, the first desk-raiser at the bank had a bad back. Those on the floor who followed him simply mistook this injury-motivated furniture re-arrangement for profit-hungry machismo.

Access to healthcare: is it enough?

Now that the US Supreme Court has ruled on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the legal debate over the provision of minimum insurance for all has largely been settled.

A doctor to tend to the World Bank

As I write this, the short odds are on Jim Yong Kim to replace Robert Zoellick at the head of the World Bank, just ahead of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Ranking: The quality of death

The Economist Intelligence Unit was commissioned by the Lien Foundation, a Singaporean philanthropic organisation, to devise a "Quality of Death" Index to rank countries according to their provision of end-of-life care.

Health reform: The debate goes public

Healthcare systems are complex, enormous and unwieldy, whether they are state-managed monoliths such as the UK’s, or dominated by the private insurance sector, as in the US. They are traditionally slow to adapt to change, but now those immovable objects are being forced to confront not just one, but several irresistible forces: demographic (ageing populations), epidemiological (increasing incidence of chronic diseases), technological (more expensive drugs and technologies) and economic (global recession, high public debt, smaller pensions).

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