Borrowing and selling to pay for health care in low- and middle-income countries.

Achieving Universal Health Coverage by Focusing on Primary Care in Japan: Lessons for Low- and Middle-Income Countries

When the Japanese government adopted Western medicine in the late nineteenth century, it left intact the infrastructure of primary care by giving licenses to the existing practitioners and by initially setting the hurdle for entry into medical school low. Public financing of hospitals was kept minimal so that almost all of their revenue came from patient charges. When social health insurance (S...

Are We Asking All the Right Questions About Quality of Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries?

Universal Health Coverage and Primary Healthcare: Lessons From Japan; Comment on “Achieving Universal Health Coverage by Focusing on Primary Care in Japan: Lessons for Low- and Middle-Income Countries”

A recent editorial by Naoki Ikegami has proposed three key lessons from Japan’s experience of achieving virtually universal coverage with primary healthcare services: the need to integrate the existing providers of primary healthcare services into the organised health system; the need to limit government commitments to finance hospital services and the need to empower providers of primary healt...

The Implications of Global Neurosurgery for Low- and Middle-Income Countries. The Case of Cameroon.

The unequal distribution of neurosurgical resources and diseases in the world contributes to inequality. Eight in ten neurosurgical cases needing essential neurosurgical care are found in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs); however, LMICs lack the neurosurgical resources to address these needs. Besides, where neurosurgical care is available, it is not financially accessible to the majorit...

Initiatives in Medical Volunteerism Aimed at Reducing the Burden of Orthopedic Disease in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

While infectious disease garners much attention and research funding globally, initiatives aimed at treating traumatic orthopedic injuries are underfunded despite such injuries accounting for a significant degree of morbidity worldwide. In recent years, a number of organizations have sought to alleviate this burden through treatment and educational initiatives in low- and middle-income countrie...