Health Equity: 05/03/12

Thursday, May 3, 2012

[EQ] Bridging international law and rights-based litigation: Mapping health-related rights

Bridging international law and rights-based litigation:

Mapping health-related rights through the development of the Global Health and Human Rights Database

Benjamin Mason Meier, Helena Nygren-Krug, Oscar A. Cabrera, Ana Ayala, Lawrence O. Gostin

O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, and the
World Health Organization, and the Lawyers Collective – 2012

Available at http://bit.ly/JFu0K7

Database: Will be Available June 2012 at http://www.ghhrdb.org

“…..Global Health and Human Rights Database that maps the intersection of health and human rights in judgments, international and regional instruments, and national constitutions. Where states long remained unaccountable for violations of health-related human rights, litigation has arisen as a central mechanism in an expanding movement to create rights-based accountability.

Facilitated by the incorporation of international human rights standards in national law, this judicial enforcement has supported the implementation of rights-based claims, giving meaning to states' longstanding obligations to realize the highest attainable standard of health. Yet despite these advancements, there has been insufficient awareness of the international and domestic legal instruments enshrining health-related rights and little understanding of the scope and content of litigation upholding these rights. As this accountability movement evolves, the Global Health and Human Rights Database seek to chart this burgeoning landscape of international instruments, national constitutions, and judgments for health-related rights.

Employing international legal research to document and catalogue these three interconnected aspects of human rights for the public's health, the Database's categorization by human rights, health topics, and regional scope provides a comprehensive means of understanding health and human rights law. Through these categorizations, the Global Health and Human Rights Database serves as a basis for analogous legal reasoning across states to serve as precedents for future cases, for comparative legal analysis of similar health claims in different country contexts, and for empirical research to clarify the impact of human rights judgments on public health outcomes……”

Benjamin Mason Meier, Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Scholar at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.

Helena Nygren-Krug, Health and Human Rights Advisor for the Department of Ethics, Equity, Trade, and Human Rights at the World Health Organization.

Oscar A. Cabrera, Director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University.

Ana Ayala Law Fellow at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.

Lawrence O. Gostin, Faculty Director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law and the Linda D. and Timothy J. O'Neill Professor of Global Health Law at Georgetown University

KMC/2012/HSS
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[EQ] WHO Bulletin - Special theme: e-health

WHO Bulletin - Special theme:
e-health

Volume 90, Number 5, May 2012

This issue includes articles on the following topics:
• Big possibilities for the future of health
• How to measure impact
• Experts discuss the big issues
• Keeping track of influenza in Madagascar
• Using mobile phones for HIV diagnosis in Zambia
• Changing behavior through m-health
• Improving patient care in Brazil

EDITORIALS

Establishing an evidence base for e-health: the proof is in the pudding
Najeeb Al-Shorbaji & Antoine Geissbuhler
* Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/JSQ854

“………This theme issue highlights what we have learnt from e-health projects throughout the world in terms of feasibility, acceptance and impact on processes. The recipe may seem familiar and replicable, but the proof is in the pudding, in the clear demonstration that e-health can result in economic benefits and improve health outcomes. Programme evaluators and implementers face the challenge of generating such evidence, a prerequisite for the widespread adoption of e-health………”

Improving the credibility of electronic health technologies
JEWC van Gemert-Pijnen , S Wynchank , HD Covvey & HC Ossebaard
Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/IqcAlN

Measuring the impact of e-health - http://bit.ly/IGtVIg

E-health's future frontiers - http://bit.ly/KwYNpk

The bigger picture for e-health - http://bit.ly/IunNSp

RESEARCH

E-health in low- and middle-income countries: findings from the Center for Health Market Innovations
Trevor Lewis, Christina Synowiec, Gina Lagomarsino & Julian Schweitzer
Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/IqvE3i

“…..By analysing health programmes in low- and middle-income countries that engage the private sector, our paper fills gaps in the e-health literature and provides new insight into several central questions. It examines specifically the geographic distribution of technology-enabled programmes, the key issues technology can address in the health sector, and the key challenges posed by the adoption and implementation of technology for health-related purposes….”

Long-running telemedicine networks delivering humanitarian services: experience, performance and scientific output
Richard Wootton, Antoine Geissbuhler, Kamal Jethwani, Carrie Kovarik, Donald A Person, Anton Vladzymyrskyy, Paolo Zanaboni & Maria Zolfo
Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/IxcXtC

“…….The objective of the present paper is to summarize the experience gained so far with long-running telemedicine networks delivering humanitarian services; it looks at general information, network performance and scientific output. Long-running networks were selected for study because lack of programme sustainability is a commonly reported problem in telemedicine…..”

Early infant diagnosis of HIV infection in Zambia through mobile phone texting of blood test results
Phil Seidenberg, Stephen Nicholson, Merrick Schaefer, Katherine Semrau, Maximillian Bweupe, Noel Masese, Rachael Bonawitz, Lastone Chitembo, Caitlin Goggin & Donald M Thea
Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/KfD5eS

“…..This report describes the design, implementation and evaluation of Project Mwana, a pilot project in Zambia’s rural Southern Province. The main aim of this project was to reduce the time between blood sampling for the detection of infant HIV infection and notification of the test results to the relevant point-of-care health facility by using an SMS-based system. An overview of the system’s architecture is given below, along with a quantitative analysis of the project’s effectiveness and a discussion of the problems encountered in the project’s deployment….”

SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS

Factors that promote or inhibit the implementation of e-health systems: an explanatory systematic review
Frances S Mair, Carl May, Catherine O’Donnell, Tracy Finch, Frank Sullivan & Elizabeth Murray
Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/K3x01f

“…The factors promoting or inhibiting the implementation of e-health systems were the subject of a systematic review, by Mair et al., that shows a growing research emphasis on “workability”, or the work that health professionals must undertake to make e-health systems function well in practice. The review also points to the need for more research on the impact of e-health services on everyday clinical practice…”
“….The objective of this review was to synthesize and summarize the findings of identified reviews and inform current and future e-health implementation programmes. The review set out to answer two key questions:
(i) What does the published literature tell us about barriers and facilitators to e-health implementation?
(ii) What, if any, are the main research gaps?....”

POLICY & PRACTICE

Impacts of e-health on the outcomes of care in low- and middle-income countries: where do we go from here?
John D Piette, KC Lun, Lincoln A Moura, Hamish SF Fraser, Patricia N Mechael, John Powell & Shariq R Khoja

Full article [HTML] bit.ly/IGRoWG

“…..E-health tools are designed to improve health surveillance, health-system management, health education and clinical decision-making, and to support behavioural changes related to public-health priorities and disease management. Some systematic evidence of the benefits of e-health in general, and of specific areas of e-health, such as decision-support systems for clinicians or patient-targeted text messaging, already exists.

The objectives of the current review were to highlight gaps in our knowledge of the benefits of e-health and identify areas of potentially useful future research on e-health. There were three main topics of interest: outcomes among patients with chronic health conditions, the cost-effectiveness of various e-health approaches, and the impact of e-health in low- and middle-income countries….”

LESSONS FROM THE FIELD

Improving patient access to specialized health care: the Telehealth Network of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Maria Beatriz Alkmim, Renato Minelli Figueira, Milena Soriano Marcolino, Clareci Silva Cardoso, Monica Pena de Abreu, Lemuel Rodrigues Cunha, Daniel Ferreira da Cunha, Andre Pires Antunes, Adélson Geraldo de A Resende, Elmiro Santos Resende & Antonio Luiz Pinho Ribeiro

Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/IpaLBK

“……In this paper we have described the development of a large, public, state-wide telehealth system that supports primary care professionals in remote regions of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais as part of a government strategy to fulfil the constitutional premise of universal access to high-quality health care. Combining assistance and in-service education with simple and inexpensive technology, the telehealth model has been shown to be effective, technically feasible and economically viable. To the best of our knowledge, this telehealth project is one of the most successful to have been described in the scientific literature until now….”

Improving quality and use of data through data-use workshops: Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania

Jørn Braa, Arthur Heywood & Sundeep Sahay

Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/JW90Qr

Short message service sentinel surveillance of influenza-like illness in Madagascar, 2008-2012

Soatiana Rajatonirina, Jean-Michel Heraud, Laurence Randrianasolo, Arnaud Orelle, Norosoa Harline Razanajatovo, Yolande Nirina Raoelina, Lisette Ravolomanana, Fanjasoa Rakotomanana, Robinson Ramanjato, Armand Eugène Randrianarivo-Solofoniaina & Vincent Richard

Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/KsTRRE

PERSPECTIVES

M-health for health behaviour change in resource-limited settings: applications to HIV care and beyond

Harsha Thirumurthy & Richard T Lester

Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/K3pYcS

Point of care in your pocket: a research agenda for the field of m-health

- Alastair van Heerden et al.

Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/IHXN5X

Successful partnerships for international collaboration in e-health: the need for organized national infrastructures

S Yunkap Kwankam

Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/IpcbMT

Securing the public good of health research and development for developing countries

John-Arne Røttingen et al

Full article [HTML] http://bit.ly/Ip2Umt

KMC/2012/KMC
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This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues. [DD/ KMC Area]
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“Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings
and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American
Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
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Thank you.

[EQ] Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth

Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth

March of Dimes, PMNCH, Save the Children, WHO. Born Too Soon
Eds CP
Howson, MV Kinney, JE Lawn.
World Health Organization. Geneva, 2012

Website:
English: http://bit.ly/K2A4ff

French: http://bit.ly/K4ewi7

Spanish: http://bit.ly/K2RmIe

“……2 MAY 2012 | NEW YORK - Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth provides the first-ever national, regional and global estimates of preterm birth. The report shows the extent to which preterm birth is on the rise in most countries, and is now the second leading cause of death globally for children under five, after pneumonia.

Addressing preterm birth is now an urgent priority for reaching Millennium Development Goal 4, which calls for the reduction of child deaths by two-thirds by 2015.

This report shows that rapid change is possible and identifies priority actions for everyone. Born Too Soon proposes actions for policy, programs and research by all partners – from governments to NGOs to the business community -- that if acted upon, will substantially reduce the toll of preterm birth, especially in high-burden countries.

This report is a joint effort of almost 50 international, regional and national organizations, led by the March of Dimes, The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health, Save the Children and the World Health Organization in support of the Every Woman Every Child effort, led by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The report contains a foreword by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and is accompanied by more than 30 new and expanded commitments to prevention and care of preterm birth, joining more than 200 existing commitments on every woman every child Org. ………”

All preterm births are not the same

For the report, preterm was defined as 37 weeks of completed gestation or less, which is the standard WHO definition. Preterm babies are defined in 3 categories:

· Late preterm - those born between 32 and 37 weeks - account for 84 percent of total preterm births, or 12.5 million. Most survive with supportive care.

· Very preterm - those born between 28 and 32 weeks. These babies require extra supportive care. Most will survive

· Extremely preterm - those born before 28 weeks. These babies require the most intensive, expensive care to survive. In developed countries, these babies have a 90 percent chance of survival, though they may suffer lifelong physical, neurological, and learning disabilities. In low-income countries, only 10 percent survive

Content:
Executive summary
Chapter 1 - Preterm birth matters
Chapter 2 - 15 million preterm births: priorities for action based on national, regional and global estimates
Chapter 3 - Care before and between pregnancy
Chapter 4 - Care during pregnancy and childbirth
Chapter 5 - Care for the preterm baby
Chapter 6 - Actions: everyone has a role to play
References and acknowledgments
Additonal references

KMC/2012/HSD
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* * *
This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate
information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic
health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics;
Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues. [DD/ KMC Area]
Washington DC USA

Thank you.