Eyes On The Final Prize: Integrating Services To Transform Global Health

As 2015 draws to a close, the global health community is examining the strides that have been made and how we can transform this progress into further gains across the public health spectrum. The United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 include SDG 3, a holistic goal for public health that aims to ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages. It is with the backdrop of this collaborative, interconnected development landscape that two important meetings take place in Japan this week. On December 16, a symposium on universal health care will bring together global leaders for a dialogue on how countries can achieve access to equitable and affordable health services for all citizens. On December 17, Japan will host the preparatory meeting of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria ahead of the 2016 Fifth Voluntary Replenishment Conference, at which global health leaders will discuss funding needs for efforts to tackle these epidemics for 2017-2019. In these meetings and in the year to come, it is imperative that those of us working on specific disease investments keep our eyes on the final prize — that of integrating disease and wellness services to create a more responsive health system in every country that is capable of delivering essential services to the entire population. The necessity for such integrated service delivery is becoming particularly acute as we see a worldwide surge of non-communicable diseases...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Equity and Disparities Featured Global Health Organization and Delivery Public Health HIV/AIDS Japan malaria sustainable development goals TB United Nations universal health care Source Type: blogs