The 1994 World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) set minimum global standards for intellectual property rights. Subsequent bilateral and regional trade agreements, particularly those negotiated by the United States (US) and European Union (EU), have included increasingly elevated protections with an expanding array of rules impacting many aspects of […]
Price is one of the major barriers to access to medicines, leading to an increasing number of countries implementing generic medicines to promote medicines access as they move towards Universal Health Coverage. Successful uptake of generic medicines depends, in part, on ensuring that these products are interchangeable with reference products. Typically, bioequivalence certification is established […]
Despite recent global progress towards reducing maternal morbidity and mortality, nearly 830 women continue to die each day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, with most of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Maternal health services like antenatal and skilled delivery care can both improve maternal health and reduce maternal deaths […]
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends women wait at least 24 months after a live birth before attempting the next pregnancy in order to reduce the risk of adverse maternal and child health outcomes. However, fertility may return as soon as four weeks after delivery, and because most women are unaware of this timeline, they […]
Poor communication and a lack of mutual trust have long been cited as contributors to a weak patient-physician relationship and may contribute to the provision of ineffective medical care. In particular, interpersonal barriers resulting from linguistic, racial, ethnic or cultural differences between patients and providers may exacerbate disparities in utilization, care-seeking behavior and health experienced […]
The management of chronic diseases such as HIV requires healthcare providers to link patient records across multiple interactions with the health system. South Africa’s National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) conducts all routine laboratory monitoring for the country’s national public sector HIV program but does not use identifiers to track individual patients as they seek care. […]
After years of policy debate and advocacy, the World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) have developed a series of policies commonly referred to as ‘Environmental and Social Safeguards’ (ESS) aimed at preventing and mitigating social and environmental harm related to loan projects. In response to global climate change and inequality, the World Bank […]
Change in land-use—the purposes and activities through which people interact with land and terrestrial ecosystems— is a key process of global environmental change. Understanding the dynamics of land-use change is central for designing strategies to address sustainability challenges and human-altered environments around the world. However, the theories about land-use changes are disconnected from each other; […]
Many HIV patients in low- and middle-income countries do not immediately start antiretroviral therapy (ART) in spite of being eligible. As countries implement 2015 World Health Organization guidelines to initiate ART at diagnosis for every patient (“treat all”), millions of people are newly eligible for treatment. However, “treat all” will lead to significant increases in […]