Disease burden data guide spending, health policy in Mexico

In Mexico, evidence from the Global Burden of Disease study plays a central role in guiding health policy. As Secretary of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006, Dr. Julio Frenk was the first leader in the country to use Global Burden of Disease (GBD) findings to guide health policy. Burden of Disease research helped shape the package of health services provided to all Mexicans.

As recently as May 2016, another politician, lawmaker Francisco Javier Pinto Torres, was using GBD to enhance the efficacy of the General Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection Law. Recognizing the gravity of the burden of environmental pollution in Mexico, Mr. Pinto Torres proposed new additions to the law in front of Mexico’s Congressional Chamber of Deputies. Torres cited GBD estimates, which showed that air pollution was responsible for approximately 20,500 deaths in Mexico in 2010. He also pushed for the creation of a National Council to champion Mexico’s environmental protection actions.

These are just some of the many ways that the Mexican government has used findings from GBD to shape health policy. Findings from the Global Burden of Disease studies 2010 and 2013 were featured prominently in two national reports published by the Mexican government – “The Burden of Disease in Mexico 1990-2010, New Results and Challenges,” (Carga de la enfermedad en México 1990-2010: nuevos resultados y desafíos) and “The Mexican Health Report 2015 – A General Diagnosis of Population Health” (Informe sobre la salud de los mexicanos- diagnóstico general de la salud poblacional). Using disease burden evidence, these reports lay out a plan for how health dollars will be spent in each state.

Each report summarizes the conditions of health, illness, death, and disability throughout Mexico in order to identify the areas of greatest need. Mexico’s Ministry of Health utilized this knowledge to construct comprehensive interventions that reflect the diverse health landscape across age, sex, and region.

Figure 1: From the Mexican Health Report 2015, DALYs due to homicide in Mexican states, 2013.

Mexico’s burden of disease research has been carried out and championed for decades by Dr. Rafael Lozano, one of the strongest proponents for such evidence-based health studies in the country. Dr. Lozano headed Mexico’s first national burden of disease study in 1995. Recently, he led the successful creation of subnational GBD results, making Mexico one of the first countries in the world to publish such in-depth statistics with the help of IHME.

As previously described on the IHME website, Dr. Lozano’s contributions to public health have been recognized with prestigious awards, such as the Award for Achievement in Research from Carlos Slim Foundation, and the Medal of Merit from the Mexican Society of Public Health.

Dr. Lozano currently serves as the Director of Health Systems Research for the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) and is a Professor of Global Health at IHME. Previously he spent seven years with the Ministry of Health in Mexico as the General Director of Health Information. Dr. Lozano is spreading the word about the value of GBD for decision-making throughout Mexico and Latin America, frequently providing trainings to show how GBD data can be explored through interactive tools and maps.

With the global health landscape constantly changing, Dr. Lozano understands the necessity of developing new research, methods, and data at the same rapid pace of the world, stating, “the health system needs to modernize…and adapt to the demands and health conditions of the 21st century.”

While Dr. Lozano is integral to the collaboration among IHME, INSP, and the Mexican Ministry of Health, he understands that the health of a nation cannot be improved by one man alone. In Dr. Lozano’s words, “the application of knowledge is everyone’s responsibility…make it happen.” If Mexico really wants to achieve universal health care, he emphasizes, its government, medical professionals, citizens, and international partners must all work together to develop a system to provide health to all.