The notion of “reverse innovation”--that some insights from low-income countries might offer transferable lessons for wealthier contexts--is increasingly common in the global health and business strategy literature. Yet the perspectives of researchers and policymakers in settings where these innovations are developed have been largely absent from the discussion to date. In this Commentary, we present examples of programmatic, technological, and research-based innovations from Rwanda, and offer reflections on how the global health community might leverage innovative partnerships for shared learning and improved health outcomes in all countries.
Monitoring equity and research policy
Shared learning in an interconnected world: innovations to advance global health equity
Binagwaho A, et al: Globalization and Health 9(37): 30 August 2013
Sharing health data: Good intentions are not enough
Pisani E and AbouZahr C: Bulletin of the World Health Organization 88: 462–464, June 2010
According to this article, epidemiologists and public health researchers are moving very slowly in the data-sharing revolution, and agencies that maintain global health databases are reluctant to share data too. Funders of public health research are beginning to call for change and developing data-sharing policies that are in the public interest. However they are not yet adequately addressing the obstacles that underpin the failure to share data, which include professional structures that reward publication of analysis but not of data, and funding streams and career paths that continue to undervalue critical data management work. Practical issues need to be sorted out too: how and where should data be stored for the long term, who will control access and who will pay for those services? The article offers goals for data sharing and a work plan for reaching them, and challenges respondents to move beyond well-intentioned, but largely aspirational, data-sharing plans.
Shooting our hard drive into space and other ways to practise responsible development data
Antin K, Byrne R, Geber T, van Geffen S, Hoffmann J, Jayaram M, Khan M, Lee T, Weinberg F, Wilson C, Rühling B, Rahman Z, Simeoni C: 9 October 2014
This book is offered as a first attempt to understand what responsible data means in the context of international development programming. It takes a broad view of development and also anticipates that some of the methods and lessons may have resonance for related fields and practitioners. It is intended to support thoughtful and responsible thinking as the development community grapples with relatively new social and ethical challenges stemming from data use. This book builds on a number of resources and strategies developed in academia, human rights and advocacy, but aims to focus on international development practitioners so touches primarily upon issues specifically relevant to development practitioners and intermediaries working to improve the lives and livelihoods of people.
Short Report: Mobile Phone Microscopy for the Diagnosis of Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infections: A Proof-of-Concept Study
Bogoch II, Andrews JR, Speich B, Utzinger J, Ame SM, Ali SM and Keiser J: American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (early online edition), 11 March 2013
A smartphone, a strip of double-sided tape and a simple glass lens could have a significant impact on the diagnosis of helminths, intestinal parasites that affect millions in remote, rural parts of the world. In this proof-of-concept study in rural Tanzania, researchers compared the effectiveness of a lens attached to an iPhone with the effectiveness of a standard light microscope in searching for roundworm and hookworm eggs in 199 children's stool samples. Although not as sensitive as the light microscope, the mobile phone microscope revealed a sensitivity of 69.4% and a specificity of 61.5% for detecting any soil-transmitted helminth infection. The advantages of the mobile phone microscope are that it can be used with any smart phone, a lay health worker can operate it and it’s portable. The standard diagnostic process requires a microscope, a person trained to use one, electricity and a decent light source, which are often not widely available in rural areas.
Slow progress? Monitoring HIV disease in Uganda
Understanding HIV disease progression is critical for planning healthcare strategies in developing countries. What is the best way to monitor disease progression in the absence of laboratory tests? How does HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa differ from developed regions? A study by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Uganda Virus Research Institute addressed these issues.
Small states: Economic review and basic statistics, volume 14
Commonwealth Secretariat: September 2010
This annual collection of key economic and statistical data on states with fewer than five million inhabitants is designed as a reference for economists, planners and policy-makers. The book contains fifty-four tables covering selected economic, social, demographic and Millennium Development Goal indicators culled from international and national sources and presents information unavailable elsewhere. A detailed parallel commentary on trends in Commonwealth small states, looking at growth, employment, inflation, human development, and economic policy, permits a deeper understanding of developments behind the figures. The book also includes three articles focusing on trade in services.
Social sciences research in neglected tropical diseases 2: A bibliographic analysis
Reidpath DD, Allotey P and Pokhrel S: Health Research Policy and Systems 9(1), 6 January 2011
The authors of this study reviewed social science and interdisciplinary research in neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). They conducted a bibliographic analysis of neglected NTD-related research papers published over the past 10 years in biomedical and social sciences, focusing on specific NTDs, namely chikungunya, dengue, visceral leishmaniasis and onchocerciasis. According to the review, there is substantial variation in the number of publications associated with each disease. The proportion of the research that is social science based appears remarkably consistent. A textual analysis, however, revealed a degree of misclassification by the abstracting service, where a surprising proportion of the ‘social sciences’ research was actually pure clinical research. Much of the social sciences research also tends to be ‘hand maiden’ research focused on the implementation of biomedical solutions. The authors conclude there is little evidence that scientists pay any attention to the complex social, cultural, biological and environmental dynamic involved in human pathogenesis. They found little investigator-driven social science research and a poor presence of interdisciplinary science. NTD research needs more sophisticated funders and priority setters who are not beguiled by uncritical biomedical promises, they argue.
Social sciences research in neglected tropical diseases 3: Investment in social science research in neglected diseases of poverty: A case study of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Pokhrel S, Reidpath D and Allotey P: Health Research Policy and Systems 9(2), 6 January 2011
In this study, the authors analysed the spending of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a major independent international funder, on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). They included 67 projects funded between October 1998 and November 2008, 55% of which were from Africa. Projects were categorised as social science or non-social science research. The authors found that 26 projects (39%) were social science related while 41 projects (61%) were basic science or other translational research, including drug development. A total of US$697 million was spent to fund the projects, of which 35% (US$241 million) went to social science research. Although the level of funding for social science research has generally been lower than that for non-social science research over the past ten years, social science research attracted more funding in 2004 and 2008. The authors argue that, due to the high demand for improved delivery and utilisation of current NTD drugs/technologies, which are informed by social science-based research, funding priorities need to reflect greater investment in this type of research into NTDs.
Social sciences research in neglected tropical diseases: The ongoing neglect in the neglected tropical diseases
Allotey P, Reidpath DD and Pokhrel S: Health Research Policy and Systems 8(32), 21 October 2010
Infectious diseases are bound by a complex interplay of factors related as much to the individual as to the physical, social, cultural, political and economic environments. Furthermore each of these factors is in a dynamic state of change, evolving over time as they interact with each other. Simple solutions to infectious diseases are therefore rarely sustainable solutions, this article argues. This calls for interdisciplinary approaches that address complexity. The article proposes that research and the largely biomedical interventions for neglected tropical diseases, largely neglect the social and ecological contexts that lead to the persistence of these diseases.
Social Watch releases 2008 Basic Capabilities Index
Social Watch: September 2008
According to the 2008 Basic Capabilities Index, the Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved by 2015 at the present rate of progress, unless substantial changes occur. Progress in basic social indicators slowed down last year all over the world. Out of 176 countries for which a BCI figure could be computed, only 21 registered noticeable progress in relation to their score in 2000. Another 55 countries showed some progress, but at a slow rate, while 77 countries stagnated or worsened. Information is insufficient to show trends for the remaining 23. As the impact of the food crisis that started in 2006 begins to be registered by the new statistics coming in, the situation is likely to get worse in the next months.