The world currently has a shortage of some 4 million health workers, amplified by a complete mismatch between where health workers are stationed and where they are most needed.
Last Friday, I sat in the beautiful Haw River Ballroom in the enchanting town of Saxapahaw, North Carolina, with hundreds of eclectic, savvy, and well-traveled individuals at SwitchPoint 2012—IntraHealth’s first annual conference, retreat, and concert on innovation and global health.
Charles Krauthammer questioned the classification of contraception as preventive medicine, stating that “categorizing pregnancy as a disease equivalent is a value decision disguised as science.”
Leading up to this year’s International Women’s Day, the U.S. Agency for International Development introduced a new policy to help women and girls participate fully in and benefit from development.
A recent editorial in The Lancet issued a dire warning to the international medical community: medicine is a weapon of war in Syria. It is just the latest in a series of reportsfrom across the Middle East on how medical care and medical professionals and facilities are being used to inflict politically-motivated violence.
Last week, NPR ran a story that made me cringe, describing a major humanitarian group’s decision to stop treating patients from detention centers in Misrata, Libya. According to the report, “torture was so rampant that some detainees were brought for care only to make them fit for further interrogation.”
Despite firm standards rooted in the Geneva Conventions to protect health facilities, health workers, and the patients served during armed conflict, and to enable health professionals to act consistently with their ethical obligations, assaults on and interference with health functions are all too common in war.