Commentaries

In 2015, member states of the United Nations adopted the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which included 17 global goals that targeted economic and social development. Goal 3, “to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages,” targets specifically marked progress in universal health coverage; improved access to safe, effective, and affordable medicines; and the end of the HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis epidemics by 2030. Although these goals can spur innovation, social and political commitment, and a drive to achieve greater health gains for less money, financial support is necessary to achieve them. 

The Lancet details the Roux Prize award winner for 2018, Dr. Cynthia Maung. Dr. Maung and her staff at the Mae Tao Clinic on the border of Thailand and Myanmar have collected data over the years to identify what is driving people's illnesses, disabilities, and injuries and how to improve delivery of care.

Professor Alan Lopez and IHME Director Christopher Murray awarded Gairdner Global Health Award 2018 For ground-breaking work in conceptualizing and quantifying the Global Burden of Disease.

Last week, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation published two studies revealing health and education disparities on the African continent. What is significant about these studies is not only the results, but also the process that was used to arrive at them, known as “precision mapping.” With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, IHME is mapping a range of global health metrics using 5x5 kilometer units.

Progress in the fight against hunger is patchy. New tools must target action to those who are most vulnerable, says Kofi Annan.

This year's Roux Prize was awarded to Samba Sow for using health data to save children's lives through a comprehensive vaccination programme. Andrew Green with The Lancet reports.

Trevor Mundel, President of Global Health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, discusses his experience at the Global Burden of Disease 20th Anniversary Symposium. 

The Lancet Infectious Diseases profiles IHME Director of Geospatial Science Dr. Simon Hays. 

Goalkeepers: The Stories Behind the Data is the foundation’s first annual progress report on the SDGs and was produced in partnership with IHME. The Gates’ Goalkeepers report

Rheumatic heart disease ranks as one of the most serious cardiovascular scourges of the past century.  As a result of improvements in living conditions and the introduction of penicillin, the disease was almost eradicated in the developed world by the 1980s. However, it remains a force to be reckoned with in the developing world, as demonstrated by an assessment from the 2015 Global Burden of Disease study (GBD 2015), painstakingly performed by Watkins and colleagues and reported in this issue of the Journal.

On May 23, 2017, President Donald Trump released his FY 2018 budget request to Congress that includes approximately $2.5 billion in cuts to global health. In t

We’re living with an virus-like disease sweeping our nation. Nearly every community is affected. The rates of death rise year after year. It’s the second-leading killer of men in their thirties, making the disease an even bigger threat to their health than being murdered with firearms. This killer sweeping the nation: opioid use.

If we are trying to rigorously generate population health estimates, we need to open up the scientific debate. The GATHER guidelines form a checklist that any researcher can use to make sure that the global health estimates they are producing are making the maximum contribution to the field of health metrics and ultimately to evidence-based decision-making.

Americans are living longer than ever before, thanks in large part to NIH-supported research. But a new, heavily publicized study shows that recent gains in longevity aren’t being enjoyed equally in all corners of the United States.

Since John Graunt's analyses of the Bills of Mortality in London, UK, in 1662, observations of premature deaths have driven public health actions—from John Snow's apocryphal removal of the handle on the Broad Street pump during the 1854 cholera outbreak to the international response to the 2013–16 outbreak of Ebola virus disease in west Africa.

A new report in The Lancet using data from the Global Burden of Disease Study adds quantitative detail to an already extensive international literature on the health impact of the global tobacco epidemic by providing comprehensive estimates of death and disability caused by smoking at the country level.

Although knowledge about global health financing has expanded over the past two decades, major gaps remain. We know little, for example, about how much governments spend on major disease areas, how these amounts have evolved over time and how countries compare. A global health financing data revolution is sorely needed. The suite of papers that make up this special issue underline the importance of reliable information about financial resources for health.

After more than a decade of immense growth, development assistance for health has flatlined. DAH fueled a scale up of antiretrovirals, insecticide-treated bed nets, vaccinations and a host of important global health interventions. Over the same period, the spread of a number of infectious diseases was reversed, reducing premature death and disability across the developing world. The plateau in international funding may threaten to slow progress or even roll back these gains.