A "disease systems" symposium?
Future Health Systems
BY DAVID BISHAI, JOHNS HOPKINS SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
This symposium is unique because it's not about one disease. In the land of global health, this is going to provoke suspicion and a sense that all this attention may be threatening resources and taking away the limelight from "my disease". In sober moments everyone realizes that nobody's disease can be properly addressed without a strong health system. But the logical error that plagues us all began when we framed global health as a problem of "diseases" and the solutions as "disease control". Although it is billed as a health systems symposium, I am afraid the week will be consumed with concerns about human activity that is fundamentally reactive and curative. This is really a "disease systems" symposium.
This symposium is unique because it's not about one disease. In the land of global health, this is going to provoke suspicion and a sense that all this attention may be threatening resources and taking away the limelight from "my disease". In sober moments everyone realizes that nobody's disease can be properly addressed without a strong health system. But the logical error that plagues us all began when we framed global health as a problem of "diseases" and the solutions as "disease control". Although it is billed as a health systems symposium, I am afraid the week will be consumed with concerns about human activity that is fundamentally reactive and curative. This is really a "disease systems" symposium.