As a project manager for MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders), a medical emergency humanitarian agency, I attended this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, in the […]
Global health
Rachel ter Horst: The tomorrow of neglected tropical diseases
Four acts in 90 minutes. A tight script that does not leave time for clapping. Nine men in dark suits and one woman on stage. That one woman is Margaret […]
Mit Philips on the ICASA conference: donor retreat and its consequences for patients and communities
The 2011 International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) conference in Addis Ababa was an experience in contradictions. Presentations about promising new strategies created by scientific breakthroughs, […]
Mary Robinson: Protecting all women against cervical cancer – a question of justice
Every two minutes a woman dies of cervical cancer. Not surprisingly, 90 percent of these deaths occur in the poorest countries where women often do not have access to screening tests […]
Maya Tickell-Painter: Where is health being included in the UN climate change negotiations?
Recently, you heard from Johnny Meldrum about why health professionals should care about climate change, and their role in the climate change negotiations. More than ever before, health professionals were […]
Seye Abimbola: David Cameron, homosexuality, and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa
“All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; and Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” — Arthur Schopenhauer Last week, the Nigerian senate […]
Philippe Chastonnay, Beat Stoll, Bruce Currey: Can donors focus on birth weights after Busan?
The new inclusive “Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation” resulting from the 4th high level forum on aid effectiveness in Busan, South Korea, issued on 1st December does not include […]
Ike Anya: Tackling imported malaria in the UK
It is a typical busy, Thursday afternoon in the office in central London, as I recall the mental note I made to myself earlier that day: ring GP practice to […]
Edward Davies: Cuts, pensions, and perspective
Walking to the NHS Alliance’s annual conference through Manchester this morning, the streets were peppered with small pickets. University staff, civil servants, transport workers, all sorts of folk objecting to […]
Richard Smith: The happiness questionnaire
My son, a chef, is part of a “pop up think tank” of people under 35 working on happiness. They are gathering evidence through a questionnaire, and I thought that […]