Using market mechanisms in the provision of health services and seeing health care as a private good are approaches that have featured prominently in health sector reforms across the world. UNRISD research on global and local experiences of health care commercialization challenges this framework. It calls for reclaiming public policies that promote the purposes that health systems are set up to...

Understanding the differences in the effects of environmental contamination on children and adults is an important part of environmental policymaking; however, unless environmental health policies reflect the differences between adults and children, this knowledge will have little practical effect. The authors of this article consider how the unique vulnerabilities of children challenge environ...

This article introduces an issue of World Health Statistics Quarterly that summarizes the activities of working groups charged by the World Health Organization (WHO) with suggesting actions for a new holistic global health policy for the 21st century. After a brief introduction, the article describes implementation of the global consultative process to develop the new policy and highlights 10 ...

INTRODUCTION The medical aim of translational research is to smooth the transition of discoveries made through basic research from the laboratory bench to their diagnostic or therapeutic applications for patients. These applications may be extended to current clinical practice and to health policies. AIM The converse is also important: health policies should provide a point of departure when ...

OBJECTIVES Despite attempts, policy silences continue to create barriers to addressing the healthcare needs of First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The purpose of this article is to answer the question, if what we have in Canada is an Aboriginal health policy patchwork that fails to address inequities, then what would a Healthy Aboriginal Health Policy framework look like? METHODS The data collect...

BACKGROUND Despite effective diagnosis and treatment, prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) is still growing. The directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS) strategy to treat TB was introduced by the World Health Organization more than a decade ago. Little is known about patients' experience of TB treatment, according to DOTS, in Iran. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to understand the patients' e...

Health in All Policies (HiAP) has gained attention as a potential tool to address complex health and societal challenges at global, regional, national and subnational levels. In a recent article, Lawless et al propose an evaluation framework developed in the context of the South Australia HiAP initiative. Strategies, mediators, activities and impacts identified in the framework could potentiall...

T o be leaders in the health sciences, we must be the change we wish to see in the world and lead by example. We must be trailblazers and pioneers in health sciences research and in clinical practice—saving lives, improving lives, and making our health care sys­ tem more effective, more responsive, and more success­ ful. To accomplish this, we need to recognize that re­ search and practice do n...

BACKGROUND Immigrant workers make up an important portion of the hired workforce in the Agricultural, Forestry and Fishing (AgFF) sector, one of the most hazardous industry sectors in the US. Despite the inherent dangers associated with this sector, worker protection is limited. METHODS This article describes the current occupational health and safety policies and regulatory standards in the ...

We present a review of current Spanish occupational health policy and its ability to respond to new occupational health challenges First, we describe the main features of the Spanish labour market structure and labour market participation. Next, we identify its major occupational health policy needs both in terms of traditional occupational diseases and injuries as well as in terms of emergent ...