Monitoring global health

Editor—The need to develop and maintain a robust health information system that is free from political influence is undoubtedly important. The health promotion field of the Cochrane Collaboration has also recognised this need, identified priority areas of global importance, and is commissioning reviews.¹ The suggestion by Murray et al of an independent global organisation sounds similar to the ideals of the Cochrane Collaboration but seems to have a wider scope.²

One of the problems with such organisations is that these centres are usually based in a developed country—for example, most centres of the Cochrane Collaboration are located in the developed world. An alternative to creating a new body looking at health information could be to help support establishing regional or national centres of a collaboration in the developing world; rather than to have yet another organisation based in a developed country. In my view, this is more likely to contribute to the development of a robust global health information system.