America is preparing to involve itself in expanded investments aimed at improving the health status of the populations of impoverished nations. Unfortunately, we lack the data and information to properly develop coordinated plans and strategies to implement such a lofty mission.
Three international conferences among teams of health professionals, diplomats, and foreign affairs experts from the USA, Canada, and the UK produced the leading recommendation from the conferees to establish, in each of the 3 nations, what the British refer to as a National Directory of Global Health Efforts. The Honorable John Porter, former Republican Congressman from Illinois, and I have tried to develop a workable plan for achieving the goal of an accessible and useful American global health databank.
We recommend breaking the central databank into 3 separate branches with closely linked Web sites, to be coordinated by a fourth entity. Clinical and public health services, public health and biomedical research, and health workforce development should each be placed in entities with appropriate expertise. We anticipate these 3 will progress at differing rates.
The Gates Foundation/University of Washington Global Health Evaluation Research Center, the National Institutes of Health, and the Institute of Medicine are likely candidates to house, respectively, the health services, research, and workforce Web sites. The Institute of Medicine should establish the oversight, evaluation, and coordination committee to insure that the 3 pieces come together.
Such a databank is essential for our nation to develop and coordinate expanded governmental and nongovernmental investments to improve the health status of underresourced nations.
This mission is the right thing to do. The databank is the right beginning.
At least, that's my opinion! I'm Dr. Roger Bulger, former President of the Association of Academic Health Centers.
For more information, see http://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/policyareas/index.asp?id=20
Footnotes
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References
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