Closing the health inequity gap can be seen as an issue of justice, however what concretely best serves the interest of justice is in dispute. It is argued that standard policy-making mechanisms are inadequate to address this issue, and therefore more and better public dialogue is required. Drawing on deliberative democratic theory and practice, three public organizing considerations are offere...

In the 1960s and 1970s, China’s barefoot doctor system was acclaimed worldwide for providing inexpensive and equally accessible medical care for rural populations. In the 1980s, with the advent of market reform, the barefoot doctor system came to an end. Many barefoot doctors either became private doctors or gave up medical practice. More than three decades have passed since this dramatic chang...

This paper describes the development of an indicator of use in the analysis of regional travel patterns for health care services. The indicator is derived using two different models which describe the relationship between utilization and travel distance. Results from both models are compared in terms of their validity, sensitivity and usefulness in describing health service areas and to populat...

BACKGROUND: This paper is an edited version of an invited paper submitted to the Australian Health Care Summit on 17-19 August 2003. It comments upon the policies which have dominated recent debate and contrasts their importance with the importance of five issues which have received relatively little attention. METHODS: Policy is usually a response to identified problems and the paper examines ...

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) mobilized global commitments to promote health, socioeconomic, and sustainable development. Trends indicate that the health MDGs may not be achieved by 2015, in part because of insufficient coordination across related health, socioeconomic, and environmental initiatives. Explicitly acknowledging the need for such collaboration, the Meikirch Model of Healt...

Research infrastructure – the assets, facilities and services that support research and maintain the capacity of researchers to undertake research – is an important contributor to research excellence. A key theme in the 2008 review of public health research funding in Australia was the need for strategic investment in public health research infrastructure, including centres of research excellen...

Holding local boards of health accountable presents challenges related to governance and funding arrangements. These challenges result in (a) multiple accountability pressures, (b) population health outcomes whose change is measureable only over long time periods and (c) board of health activity that is often not the key immediate direct contributor to achieving desired outcomes. We examined ho...

BACKGROUND even older adults who are fit experience adverse health outcomes; understanding their risks for adverse outcomes may offer insight into ambient population health. Here, we evaluated mortality risk in relation to social vulnerability among the fittest older adults in a representative community-dwelling sample of older Canadians. METHODS in this secondary analysis of the Canadian Stu...

Pierre-Gerlier Forest has put forward the case that we are on the brink of a revolution in health policy that will be the result of the interplay of five factors. I would not challenge any of them but would emphasize the need to address socio-economic health inequalities, which have the potential to become a major cost driver in a time of growing economic inequality. To Dr. Forest's list, I wou...

The World Health Organization (WHO) has used econometric methods to measure the efficiency of health care systems. We assess the robustness of WHO results to definitions of efficiency and statistical procedures. Originally analysed by the WHO, the data are for 1997 (50 countries) and 1993-1997 (141 countries). The efficiency of each country in promoting population health is estimated after taki...