Policy Wise

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A new study by the World health organization warns that smoking could potentially kill one billion people in the 21st century. An article in The Economist details some of the challenges governments face in attempting to control smoking especially [...]

April Harding at the Global Health Policy blog responds to the Economist article (linked here) and makes a few telling comments,
As noted in The Economist, the interventions assessed included simultaneous free distribution of bednets and free distribution of artemisinin drugs - the highly-effective malaria treatment. So these reviews do not shed light on the [...]

A story in the Economist questions the conventional wisdom that giving away free goods is not the best way to advance public policy,
Dr Kochi and his team reviewed antimalaria operations in Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia, looking mainly at under-fives, who are most threatened by the disease. WHO says that over 1m people die each [...]

In a rather rambling article in the Hindustan Times, Lalita Panicker attacks the ”theory” that medical tourism can help the Indian public health system,
But, we hold that medical tourism is a panacea to the ills that beset our public health system. Let us look at the figures. Today, 150,000 foreigners come to India for healthcare [...]

The emigration of health professionals from developing world to member countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) remains a highly contentious issue. In America itself, according to the American Medical Association (AMA), International Medical Graduates (IMGs) constitute approximately 25% of the physician population. Indians are by far the largest group-nearly 20% of [...]

As reported by the New York Times’ health blog, a University of Wisconsin study confirms what many people already suspect.
Healthy eating really does cost more.
That’s what University of Washington researchers found when they compared the prices of 370 foods sold at supermarkets in the Seattle area. Calorie for calorie, junk foods not only cost less [...]

Arjun Singh imposed quotas. Ramadoss threw out Venugopal. What’s the difference?

After nearly year a struggle, the union health minister, Anbumani Ramadoss has finally managed to dislodge the director of the All India Institute of Medical Science, Dr P Venugopal from his post. There is little Ramadoss hasn’t tried in the last one years: media war, [...]

India has been ranked a disappointing 128th in the latest United Nations Human Development Index rubbing shoulders with the likes of Chad and Burkina Faso. More disappointingly, there has been virtually no improvement from last year.
The entire ranking can be seen here.
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With the booming demand for MBAs , increasing number of doctors are enrolling themselves in management schools,
Having admired themselves in surgical gowns, medical students now want to don business suits and lend surgical precision to business strategies. Booming corporate sector and demand for domain specialists has got doctors and medicine graduates smitten by management [...]

An interesting new paper in the The Journal of Americal Medical Association argues that teaching villagers about services availability can improve health outcomes. The researcher conducted a cluster randomized control trial in 100 village clusters in U.P. First a baseline survey was conducted which found no siginificant differences in health outcomes across the villages. This [...]