I had the pleasure of gorging a bit (no pun intended, but please read on) on TED talks a few days ago, and in the process, spent a couple hours listening to several talks in their “Food Matters” theme. One talk in particular by Carolyn Steel captured my interest: How Food Shapes our Cities. Carolyn is […]
It looks like Cynthia and I had the same idea this week. So instead of a traditional post, I’d like to do a little link-mailing today. As she wrote earlier this week, there are a lot of interesting things to share. First, the wonderful “In Focus with Alan Taylor” photography blog at The Atlantic says […]
On the HIV/AIDS front, news has been coming fast and furiously this week and last, as the United Nations conducts its High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, South Africa hosts its HIV/AIDS conference in Durban and the media takes the opportunity to commorate the 30-year anniversary of the global fight against AIDS. I thought I’d link to […]
There’s a tricky gray area in the non-profit world around “mission creep” and funding when it comes to human rights. Non-profit organizations (and charitable foundations) obviously want to maximize their funding. And most NGOs, or people working for or supporting NGOs, care about more than one issue, even if they have a narrow focus: generally, […]
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the new Medicare initiative to reward hospitals with better performance metrics, and punish those with worse. On Monday, the New York Times published an article which gave greater detail about the proposed payment methodology. According to the article, the “plan has drawn fire from hospitals” due to a clause which requires […]
CDC Zombie Blog It’s 11pm, I’m tired, and I still haven’t written my post. And so, because I’m feeling a bit punchy, I’m resorting to posting a simple image which served to make me laugh, as well as visit the CDC website, a site which isn’t usually the source if mirth. According to the Wall […]
Over the past few weeks, the spotlight has been on Greg Mortenson, the founder of Central Asia Institute and co-author of Three Cups of Tea, for alleged financial fraud and false claims–with one of the most damning accounts coming from Jon Krakauer. One of the refrains I’ve heard from colleagues and friends is a frustration […]
Let me start with saying how happy I am to be living in a new democracy. Today is election day in South Africa, as voters go to the polls for the fourth municipal elections in the history of the Republic of South Africa. Although I’m an observer in this democratic process, the ability to witness […]
I picked up a piece on the IRIN HIV/AIDS network this week that reported on a “cash for contraception” program that’s currently underway in Kenya. A US-based organization, Project Prevention, is reportedly offering Kenyan women living with HIV $40 (USD) to get intrauterine devices (IUDs), a long-term contraceptive. The idea behind the program, whose operations […]
In my last post, I was discouraged by the lack of incentives for innovation in the public health system. I bemoaned in particular the payment systems that reward bad care in equal measure to good care, a surefire recipe (to my mind) for a stagnant system. Lo and behold, the Obama administration is leading the […]
Apologies for skipping out on my last post; I was on vacation in one (two, actually) of those places where there’s no Internet, no cell phones, and no TV, which is really the only way to get a vacation anymore. Which means that I didn’t get any news about anything until Tuesday morning. And now, […]
I just got back from a lecture hosted by the INSEAD Africa Initiative featuring Hal Gregersen, professor of leadership at INSEAD. Hal’s forthcoming book, the Innovator’s DNA (co-written by Jeffrey Dyer and Clayton Christensen) outlines the five essential qualities or skills that innovators possess: Associating, Observing, Experimenting, Questioning, and Networking. Contrary to the title of […]
On Friday, Julia touched upon one of my favourite subjects: Community Health Workers. I am a strong advocate of her position for paying CHWs – and for reasons that ironically have to do with lowering costs. For the last couple weeks, I’ve been focusing on the financing of healthcare and advocating for new mechanisms to […]
We have a global health worker shortage of 4.5 million, and unsurprisingly, the shortage is most acute in low- and middle-income countries. Sub-Saharan Africa has 11% of the world’s population, 24% of its disease burden and 3% of its health workers (PDF). If you want a good visual of this, head back to Cynthia’s post […]
As protests and civil unrest continue across North Africa and the Middle East, reports are emerging of Bahraini and Syrian security forces threatening, assaulting, and arresting protesters seeking medical treatment at hospitals. According to The New York Times, health care workers in Bahrain have been arrested, for protesting but also for treating patients, and security […]