There is growing scientific evidence that infections that are resistant to antibiotics are a serious global health challenge. This has stimulated wide agreement on a Global Action Plan for Addressing AMR and many countries have produced National Action Plans. It is important that these action plans take into account the local context. This is especially important in countries with a pluralistic health system in which people seek health care from a wide variety of public and private providers of drugs and medical care. One lesson from the work of the Future Health Systems Consortium is the need to take a systems approach for tackling health challenges in these countries. This blog highlights some priority issues that this kind of approach needs to take into account.
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There are about 7 billion mobile users globally, and no less than 95% of people are covered by at least 2G network. Via smartphones, people have access to over 40,000 health apps. As a result, globally there is much interest in eHealth, especially in addressing various barriers related to access to healthcare. However, from the health equity standpoint, we have to ask, who has access to quality health information through electronic platforms (eHealth)?
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Like most aspects of life in Asia, health systems have undergone massive changes in the last twenty years. And if we’ve seen some economic dragons, we’ve also seen some health dragons – with several countries posting impressive gains in health outcomes. But ‘health dragons’ doesn’t quite capture the full picture. For the most part these changes have not been happening as a result of a controlled change process. Rather, they’ve been emerging from the diverse, unguided responses of some of the most populous countries in the world. This means they look more like another mythical creature: the many-headed hydra.
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