Defining Global Health for the Future

Global health is about figuring out how to deliver quality health care to everyone, everywhere, everyday

Because I work in global health and founded a company that I named “Realizing Global Health,” I often get asked how I define global health. I always answer in the same way: global health is figuring out how to deliver quality healthcare to everyone, everywhere, everyday. As you can imagine, my answer brings up more questions, but defining global health this way gets people to think what the world would be like if human beings actually worked together and figured out how to deliver quality healthcare to everyone, everywhere, everyday. In this scenario, we would be able to address the whole patient and not only their individual ailments; we would support whole systems that provide various types of assistance, not just one; and there would be better communication so that information does not get lost in proprietary systems or forgotten on a shelf.

What would the world look like then? It would be a great place to be, don’t you think? I would probably be managing a hospital or some network of health facilities instead of spending my time helping clients put solutions in place to make sure that at least a number of people get quality healthcare in some places most of the days.

How to get there? The answer is simple but difficult to implement. The answer is to help every country increase by 10% every year the number of health facilities that are managed efficiently and are able to prove they can deliver healthcare according to quality standards consistently. If we do that, in 10 years, we would realize global health goals. Will you join me?

Share this message and share your opinion about how you define global health on LinkedIn, Facebook or Tweet about it. It is time to realize global health, don’t you think?