Author: ihsection

WHO Video: Towards making every city a healthy city

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media

Urban health challenges across the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region are acute and increasingly complex. Unplanned urban growth puts millions of people living in urban slums and disadvantaged areas in a particularly vulnerable situation, often with poor health coverage and limited access to social services. The essential value of health equity and social justice is reaffirmed in the Rio Political Declaration on Social Determinants of Health, adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2012. In response to the challenge, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) has established a Regional Healthy City Network web site to support city planners in their efforts to strengthen intersectoral collaboration, assess health and social inequity and encourage increased access for city dwellers to quality health, environmental, social and cultural services. City planners and authorities are urged to join the Network and register their cities through the website.

The Network hopes that as many as 200 cities will be registered by the end of 2013.

For more information:

http://applications.emro.who.int/hcn/

Novartis: Court Case in India Begins (MSF Video)

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media

This post was written by Nicolle Rueras.

A recent court case between the Indian Government and pharmaceutical company, Novartis, has caused a stir in the global community. Novartis is challenging Section 3(d) of India’s Patent Act, which requires companies to prove that their drug is more successful than alternative treatments for a disease to receive or extend a patent.

To get around this regulation, many companies begin “evergreening” – making minor changes to a drug that may not improve its efficacy but claim it does in order to extend its patent. If Novartis succeeds, this may open the door for other companies to follow suit, ultimately driving up prices for crucial medicines produced in India and needed around the world.

Guttmacher Institute Video – Abortion Worldwide

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media

This post was written by Nicolle Rueras.

Unsafe abortion due to unintended pregnancies has become a leading cause in maternal death, and this practice occurs often in areas where abortion has been outlawed. In fact, abortion rates are higher in areas where the practice has been deemed illegal—evidence that there are other factors to consider. In this video produced by the Guttmacher Institute, family planning and modern contraceptive methods are offered as solutions to lower rates of unintended pregnancies and abortions worldwide.

IH Section’s Dr. Maggie Huff-Rousselle Running for APHA Executive Board!

by ihsection, posted in APHA IH Section, Section Announcements

Our own Dr. Maggie Huff-Rousselle, longtime IH Section member and leader, is again running for APHA’s Executive Board. The Executive Board has 12 elected members, with three elected annually to four-year terms. During the upcoming annual meeting in San Fransisco, the Governing Council will elect three new Executive Board members. Voters will choose from eight candidates, one of whom is Dr. Huff-Rousselle. Below is a summary of her qualifications. Please spread the word and talk to those you know who can impact the vote!

Candidate for APHA Executive Board
Maggie Huff-Rousselle, PhD, MBA, MA

  • Experience in policy-formulation & consensus-building on diverse bodies
  • Experience in management, program development, & resource mobilization
  • Bringing a global perspective to the Executive Board and situating US Health Sector Reform in context

Progressive & Pragmatic Evidence-Based Advocacy — Putting the US in Context

I will work to make us collectively more effective in advocacy that re-shapes both US and global public health policies, within and beyond the borders of our own professional boundaries.

We need evidence-based advocacy contrasting the US with other countries where health services are viewed as a collective public responsibility, not a commodity traded in the marketplace. Americans have come to think of commercial insurance companies as “health care” rather than financial intermediaries that, given commercial incentives, skim the market cream by insuring those of us least in need of services (i.e. employed, higher income). Our fragmented health “systems” exacerbate social inequities and create wastage through marketing costs, and multiple administrative and billing systems.

Similar issues pertain to US policies (or lack thereof) in relation to the pharmaceutical industry: elevated US retail costs that deny access to essential medications for many; direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription drugs (not allowed in most developed countries) that promote block-busters over appropriate essential drugs; and inadequate post-marketing surveillance of new drugs as contrasted with other Western nations.

Many existing public health policies need an overhaul. Illustrative examples, related to reproductive and sexual health and HIV/AIDS, include: abstinence-only campaigns; policies on abortion; and an ill-informed domestic approach that has left us with scandalous HIV/AIDS statistics right in our nation’s capital. These are only examples. They call for multi-disciplinary consensus-building on both health and social issues.

My orientation is progressive but pragmatic. If we are to be credible and effective catalysts for change, our advocacy needs to be well-sculpted (politically and otherwise) to succeed in creating sustained changes. We should listen to those who do not see things as we see them, and not preach only to those of us who are already converted. Advocacy should often follow a strategically incremental approach, within and beyond the borders of our own professional boundaries. This is what I hope to help with.

Biography: Depth & Breadth of Interdisciplinary Experience

If we are to be credible and effective catalysts for change, we must not preach only to those who are already converts: we should also
listen to those who do not see the health sector and health policies as we do.

Dr. Huff-Rousselle has over 30 years of experience in consulting, teaching and research in the health sector, including eight overseas residencies and roughly 100 short term consultancies in 50 countries. Her experience encompasses: health policy, financing, and management, with emphasis on macro and micro health sector financing, social marketing, institutional development, and pharmaceutical sector policy and financing.

She has directed multi-country technical assistance projects in health sector reform and financing (including national health insurance), and in pharmaceutical sector policy and financing. In long-term positions in Asia, the Caribbean, and the Middle East, she has been instrumental in establishing five organizations working in pharmaceutical supply, reproductive health and HIV/AIDS, or training and research. Her research interests combine qualitative research with financial and marketing analysis, always with a focus on access, equity and quality.

Since 1991, Dr. Huff-Rousselle has been the President of Social Sectors Development Strategies (SSDS), a Boston-based health consulting and research company with both an international and US-focus: http://www.ssds.net. She has served on the governing council of APHA, as a section councilor, and is the founding coordinator of the APHA Pharmaceutical Interest/Working group. She has current or former faculty appointments at Boston University, Harvard University, Keele University (England), and Tulane University. She teaches graduate courses on health and social marketing, financial planning and management, and global pharmaceutical issues (The Other Drug War). Dr. Huff-Rousselle serves on the Editorial Board of The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, and has served on other bodies, such as the Technical Review Panel of The Global Fund, the Women’s League of Voters, etc. She has published over 50 articles and case studies on health sector issues in national and regional newspapers, professional magazines, and peer-reviewed journals.

She has an M.A. in Writing/Education from Goddard College, a dual-M.B.A. from Boston University in Public Management and Health Systems (focusing on the US health sector), and a Ph.D. in Management Studies from the University of the West Indies. A citizen of the US and native of Canada, she speaks French and English.

CSIS Video: FDA as a Global Actor

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media

This post was written jointly by Sarah Simpson and myself.

The Food & Drug Administration, better known as the FDA, is the regulatory arm of the US government responsible for ensuring the safety of the food and drugs Americans consume. As our food, drugs and products travel from around the world to our table, the FDA’s role has become increasingly more globalized.

Recently FDA commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg sat down with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Global Health Policy Center to discuss the FDA’s more globalized role. She argues that the FDA serves an often underappreciated role in the global economy, and that it is important that they continue to receive funding to build partnerships, supply chains, and monitoring systems.

Because of this increasing globalization, the FDA has been pursuing more international partnerships and relationships to ensure the safety of imported goods as well as domestic ones. This has led them to create physical offices in several countries around the world such as Chile, South Africa, China, and India.

While the FDA by no means has an unblemished record, this is yet another example of a global health initiative threatened by budget cuts (particularly in an election year), and why we need to fight to maintain funding for global health programs.