Wednesday 24 February 2010

Laurie Garrett's Global Health Update Feb 2010

Laurie Garrett's Global Health Update (February 2010)
Council on Foreign Relations

The Obama Administration Global Health Initiative Advances
CFR Roundtable in Cape Town on the Future of Funding for HIV Battle
Murderous Homophobia in East Africa
H1N1 “swine flu” Backlash
H5N1 “avian flu” Returns, AGAIN
Oh Canada! Anticipating the G8/20/+ (and the meaning of “commitment”)
Dangers Ahead for Haiti
Anthrax
Measles and Mumps Return (this time, without Wakefield’s help)

Saturday 13 February 2010

Marmot Review - Health Inequalities in England



Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England Post 2010 (Marmot Review)Download Fair Society, Healthy Lives - The Marmot Review Final Report (25Mb)

Please visit www.marmot-review.org.uk for information on the Marmot Review Conference.

The Review followed the publication of the global Commission on Social Determinants of Health, also chaired by Sir Michael Marmot and published by the WHO. The CSDH advocated that national governments develop and implement strategies and policies suited to their particular national context aimed at improving health equity. The English review is a response to that recommendation and to the government's commitment to reducing health inequalities in England.


The aim of the Review was to propose an evidence based strategy for reducing health inequalities from 2010. The strategy includes policies and interventions that address the social determinants of health inequalities.

The Review had four tasks:

(i) identify, for the health inequalities challenge facing England, the evidence most relevant to underpinning future policy and action

(ii) show how this evidence could be translated into practice

(iii) advise on possible objectives and measures, building on the experience of the current PSA target on infant mortality and life expectancy

(iv) publish a report of the review's work that will contribute to the development of a post-2010 health inequalities strategy

It is anticipated that the Review will also have relevance for other countries developing strategies aimed at tackling health inequalities, following the recommendations of the CSDH.

Progress in Medicine Conference Bristol April 2010

"Progress in Medicine"

Bristol, 13-15 April 2010

An interdisciplinary conference on the nature of progress in medicine, combining perspectives from philosophy, history, medical science, and clinical practice.

Conference homepage: events/progress_in_medicine/index.html>

Principal Speakers:

• Derek Bolton (KCL) - “Defining illness in psychiatry and in general medicine”
• Matthew Broome (Warwick) - "Medicine as applied physiology, psychiatry as applied neuroscience"
• Raffaella Campaner and Maria Carla Galavotti (Bologna) - "Evidence and the assessment of causal relations in the health sciences"
• K. Codell Carter (Brigham Young University) - “What progress are we now to expect in medicine?”
• Nancy Cartwright (LSE and UC San Diego) - "The long road from 'it works somewhere' to 'it will work for us'”
• Sir Iain Chalmers (UK Cochrane Centre) and Ulrich Tröhler (Bern) - “Medical historical textbooks and review articles fail to take account of progress in historical research”
• Andrew Cunningham (Cambridge) - "The origins of the concept of progress in medicine, ca. 16th and 17th centuries"
• Bill Fulford (Warwick) - "Neuroscience and values: from theory to practice in mental health"
• Sander Greenland (UC Los Angeles) - "How much progress in medicine is illusory?"
• Ilana Löwy (Inserm, CNRS, Paris-Sud 11) - Prenatal diagnosis: Does the improvement of diagnostic techniques constitute progress?"
• Mark Parascandola (U.S. National Institutes of Health) - "Epistemic
risk: Empirical science and the fear of being wrong"
• John Pickstone (Manchester) - tba
• David Wootton (York) - "Progress in science and medicine---some puzzles solved"
• Michael Worboys (Manchester) - "Chlamydia: A disease without a history"
• John Worrall (LSE) - "Evidence in medicine: getting back to the Hill top"

Full list of speakers and papers:

Registration now open: department/events/progress_in_medicine/registration.html>

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