Initial lessons from public-private partnerships in drug and vaccine development.
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In recent years, venture capital approaches have delivered impressive results in identifying and funding promising health discoveries and bringing them to market. This success has inspired public sector experiments with "social venture capital" approaches to address the dearth of affordable treatment and prevention for diseases of the developing world. Employing the same focus on well-defined and measurable objectives, and the same type of connections to pool and deploy resources as their for-profit counterparts, social venture capitalists seek to use the tools and incentives of capitalism to solve one of its biggest failures: the lack of drugs and vaccines for diseases endemic to low-income populations. As part of a larger trend of partnerships emerging in health product donation and distribution, public-private partnerships for pharmaceutical development have led research and development (R&D) efforts to generate more accessible and efficacious products for diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS. In this article, three R&D-focused partnerships are explored: the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative; the Medicines for Malaria Venture; and the newly formed Global Alliance for TB Drug Development. The article highlights key elements essential to the success of these ventures. (+info)
Developing public health management training capacity in Nicaragua.
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The Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health Initiative in Nicaragua is distinctive in its focus on developing a cadre of in-country trainers whose aim is to equip frontline public health managers with widely applicable tools and techniques to assist them in identifying and solving implementation problems. Since 1999, 137 trainees--37% more than originally planned--have demonstrated competence by completing and presenting applied management projects. Nineteen professors from the preventive medicine faculty at the Autonomous University of Nicaragua also have been trained. The country office now has a cadre of seasoned trainers who can meet the ongoing management training needs of CARE staff and their counterparts in the Ministry of Health and in other nongovernmental organizations. (+info)
Integrative efforts in occupational safety and health in the European union.
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The European Union has had a long tradition in developing a common European social policy from its beginning. A milestone to European social policy in the field of occupational safety and health was the Single European Act in 1986. With this Single European Act the improvement of the work environment became an explicit objective of the community. Since that starting point several legislative and nonlegislative actions have been taken to face the huge challenges of globalisation with a targeted social policy. The aim of this policy is to reconcile the interests of the employers in productive and competitive workplaces with the interests of the employees in healthy working conditions. (+info)
Implementing a network for electronic surveillance reporting from public health reference laboratories: an international perspective.
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Electronic data reporting from public health laboratories to a central site provides a mechanism for public health officials to rapidly identify problems and take action to prevent further spread of disease. However, implementation of reference laboratory systems is much more complex than simply adopting new technology, especially in international settings. We describe three major areas to be considered by international organizations for successful implementation of electronic reporting systems from public health reference laboratories: benefits of electronic reporting, planning for system implementation (e.g., support, resources, data analysis, country sovereignty), and components of system initiation (e.g., authority, disease definition, feedback, site selection, assessing readiness, problem resolution). Our experience with implementation of electronic public health laboratory data management and reporting systems in the United States and working with international organizations to initiate similar efforts demonstrates that successful reference laboratory reporting can be implemented if surveillance issues and components are planned. (+info)
The Protein Information Resource: an integrated public resource of functional annotation of proteins.
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The Protein Information Resource (PIR) serves as an integrated public resource of functional annotation of protein data to support genomic/proteomic research and scientific discovery. The PIR, in collaboration with the Munich Information Center for Protein Sequences (MIPS) and the Japan International Protein Information Database (JIPID), produces the PIR-International Protein Sequence Database (PSD), the major annotated protein sequence database in the public domain, containing about 250 000 proteins. To improve protein annotation and the coverage of experimentally validated data, a bibliography submission system is developed for scientists to submit, categorize and retrieve literature information. Comprehensive protein information is available from iProClass, which includes family classification at the superfamily, domain and motif levels, structural and functional features of proteins, as well as cross-references to over 40 biological databases. To provide timely and comprehensive protein data with source attribution, we have introduced a non-redundant reference protein database, PIR-NREF. The database consists of about 800 000 proteins collected from PIR-PSD, SWISS-PROT, TrEMBL, GenPept, RefSeq and PDB, with composite protein names and literature data. To promote database interoperability, we provide XML data distribution and open database schema, and adopt common ontologies. The PIR web site (http://pir.georgetown.edu/) features data mining and sequence analysis tools for information retrieval and functional identification of proteins based on both sequence and annotation information. The PIR databases and other files are also available by FTP (ftp://nbrfa.georgetown.edu/pir_databases). (+info)
The opportunity for international ophthalmology in treating blindness.
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As our worldview has become more pervasive, there has been a maturation of various international ophthalmological organizations. They have created several new initiatives that have the potential to dramatically affect preventable and treatable blindness, worldwide. The first international ophthalmological organization (the International Council of Ophthalmology, established in 1927) evolved from the longest continuously held medical meeting in the world (the International Congress of Ophthalmology, first held in 1857). Subsequently, a number of supranational and international organizations have been created, and these groups are beginning to communicate with each other and with national ophthalmological societies in joint planning. The international nongovernmental organizations, lay ophthalmic international organizations (e.g., International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness), and the World Health Organization have recently joined to create a proposal called Vision 2020: The Right to Sight. The International Council in partnership with Academia Ophthalmolgica Internationalis has created a parallel and complementary plan, Vision for the Future. The potential to alleviate or prevent blindness in over 150 million people requires our attention. Understanding the seemingly complex interrelationships of these many organizations--often unfamiliar to American ophthalmology--is important for the uniquely strong ophthalmic organizations in the United States. American involvement can make a difference. This presentation describes the background, relationships, and present plans, which, if implemented, will have a tremendous impact on treatable and preventable blindness and the level and quality of ophthalmic services throughout the world. (+info)
Globalisation and public health.
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At the dawn of the 21st century, globalisation is a word that has become a part of everyday communication in all corners of the world. It is a concept that for some holds the promise of a new and brighter future, while for others it represents a threat that needs to be confronted and counteracted. In the area of public health, a wide range of claims have been made about the various impacts, both positive and negative, that can be attributed to globalisation. In the ever expanding literature on globalisation and health, it has become apparent that considerable confusion is emerging in both the ways that terminology is applied and concepts are defined. The determinants of health are increasingly multisectoral, and in tackling these challenges it is necessary to take a multidisciplinary approach that includes policy analyses in such areas as trade, environment, defence/security, foreign policy, and international law. In assembling the terms for this glossary, we have attempted to demonstrate the richness of the globalisation and public health debate, and in so doing have selected some of the core terms that require definition. We hope that this glossary will help to clarify this interesting and challenging area, and will also serve as a useful entry point to this new debate in public health. (+info)