This paper explores the angles and opportunities of digital health, with a look
at digital innovation
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and its potential to support patients with circulatory diseases.
In reviewing developments in the field, current applications as well as gaps, the paper aims to support policymakers in leveraging technology for better circulatory health and to capture the roles that various sectors have in making
digital health a tool for everyone.
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World Health Organization Department of Reproductive Health and Research
Brocher Foundation,
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Hermance, Geneva, Switzerland, 27–29 April 2016
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Lancet Glob Health 2020Published OnlineNovember 27, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(20)30449-6
This third regional report discusses gaps and challenges in reducing the harmful use of alcohol and how countries can reverse current trends in a c
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ost-effective and expedited way.
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The Lancet. 13 March 2022. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02868-3. Previous Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) studies have reported
national
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health estimates for Ethiopia. Substantial regional variations in socioeconomic status, population, demography, and access to health care within Ethiopia require comparable estimates at the subnational level. The GBD 2019 Ethiopia subnational analysis aimed to measure the progress and disparities in health across nine regions and two chartered cities.
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The overall objective of the Global Action Plan is to enhance collaboration among 12 global organizations engaged in health, development and humani
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tarian responses to accelerate country progress on the health-related SDG targets. The Plan presents a new approach to strengthening collaboration among and joint action by the organizations, building on an initial joint commitment made in October 2018. The Plan is primarily intended to be strategic but provides some operational detail to guide implementation while also allowing flexibility for adjustment based on regular reviews of progress and learning from experience. Although the purpose of the Global Action Plan is not to provide or seek additional resources, the Plan will enable better use of existing resources as a result of improved collaboration, recognizing that each agency has its own unique mandate and area of expertise.
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The Lancet Planetary Health Published:May 17, 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00090-0
Every year pollution causes 9 million deaths—1 in every 6 deaths worldwide, according to a Lancet Commission on pollution
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and health.
While the number of deaths caused by household air pollution and water pollution decreased from 2015 to 2019, overall deaths remain roughly the same because of a 7% increase in deaths caused by air pollution and toxic chemical pollution.
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Beat the heat: child health amid heatwaves in Europe and Central Asia finds that half of these children died from heat-related illnesses in their f
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irst year of life. Most children died during the summer months.
"Around half of children across Europe and Central Asia – or 92 million children – are already exposed to frequent heatwaves in a region where temperatures are rising at the fastest rate globally. The increasingly high temperatures can have serious health complications for children, especially the youngest children, even in a short space of time. Without care, these complications can be life-threatening,” said Regina De Dominicis UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia.
Heat exposure has acute effects on children, even before they are born, and can result in pre-term births, low birth weight, stillbirth, and congenital anomalies. Heat stress is a direct cause of infant mortality, can affect infant growth and cause a range of paediatric diseases. The report also notes that extreme heat caused the loss of more than 32,000 years of healthy life among children and teenagers in the region.
As the temperatures continue to rise, UNICEF urges governments across Europe and Central Asia to:
- Integrate strategies to reduce the impact of heatwaves including through National Determined Contributions (NDC), National Adaptation Plans (NAP), and disaster risk reduction and disaster management policies with children at the centre of these plans
Invest in heat health action plans and primary health care to more adequately support heat-related illness among children
- Invest in early warning systems, including heat alert systems
- Adapt education facilities to reduce the temperatures in the areas children play in and equip teachers with skills to respond to heat stress
- Adapt urban design and infrastructure including ensuring buildings, particularly those housing the most vulnerable communities are equipped to minimize heat exposure
- Secure the provision of safe water, particularly in countries with deteriorating water quality and availability.
UNICEF works with governments, partners and communities across the region to build resilience against heatwaves. This includes equipping teachers, community health workers and families with the skills and knowledge to respond to heat stress.
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A public health emergency operations centre (EOC) is a central location for coordinating operational information and resources for strategic management of
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pugencies and events. EOCs provide communication and information tools and services blic health emer-
and a management system during a response to an emergency or event. This report lays out components and characteristics of an emergency operations plan, providing a suggested structure for plans and procedures. The planning process, and that of coducting a hazard analysis or needs assessment, are also discussed as key steps
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This guide has been written to provide information and practical advice on developing and delivering local plans an strategies to commission the most effective
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and efficient older people’s mental health services.Based upon clinical best practice guidance and drawing upon the range of available evidence, it describes what should be expected of an older people’s mental health service in terms of effectiveness, outcomes and value for money.
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Detecting breast cancer early improves survival, lowers morbidity and reduces the cost of care. Learn about the major breast cancer early detection strategies in this knowledge summary, including br
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east cancer education and awareness, and breast self-detection and clinical breast exams (CBE).
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Lancet Public Health 2018 Published Online September 12, 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ S2468-2667(18)30138-5
To understand the mental health treatment gap in the Region of the Americas by examining the prevalence of mental
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health disorders, use of mental health services, and the global burden of disease.
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7. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2020;44:e13
Haiti faces a double burden of disease. Infectious diseases continue to be an issue, while non-communicable diseases have become a significant burden of dise
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ase. More attention must also be focused on the increase in worrying public health issues such as road injuries, exposure to forces of nature and HIV/AIDS in specific age groups. To address the burden of disease, sustained actions are needed to promote better health in Haiti and countries with similar challenges.
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We need to be concerned about mental health in the context of climate change
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(12), 2626; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15122626
Climate change is increasing risks to human health and
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to the health systems that seek to protect the safety and well-being of populations. Health authorities require information about current associations between health outcomes and weather or climate, vulnerable populations, projections of future risks and adaptation opportunities in order to reduce exposures, empower individuals to take needed protective actions and build climate-resilient health systems. An increasing number of health authorities from local to national levels seek this information by conducting climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments. While assessments can provide valuable information to plan for climate change impacts, the results of many studies are not helping to build the global evidence-base of knowledge in this area. They are also often not integrated into adaptation decision making, sometimes because the health sector is not involved in climate change policy making processes at the national level. Significant barriers related to data accessibility, a limited number of climate and health models, uncertainty in climate projections, and a lack of funding and expertise, particularly in developing countries, challenge health authority efforts to conduct rigorous assessments and apply the findings. This paper examines the evolution of climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments, including guidance developed for such projects, the number of assessments that have been conducted globally and implementation of the findings to support health adaptation action. Greater capacity building that facilitates assessments from local to national scales will support collaborative efforts to protect health from current climate hazards and future climate change. Health sector officials will benefit from additional resources and partnership opportunities to ensure that evidence about climate change impacts on health is effectively translated into needed actions to build health resilience.
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The burden of diabetes is enormous, positioning it as one of the main challenges facing public health today. Currently, it is estimated that 62 mil
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lion people are living with diabetes in the Region of the Americas and projections show its prevalence will continue rising over the following years. The Region shows the highest number of years of healthy life lost (through either disability or premature death) due to diabetes worldwide. The high costs associated with its treatment produce a heavy economic burden. Its complications can seriously affect the quality of life of people living with diabetes, their families, and society and overload health systems. This report shows the latest internationally comparable data on diabetes and its main risk factors by year, country, and sex. It also includes a summary of the countries health systems’ response to diabetes, including national plans, targets, surveillance, guidelines, and access to essential drugs and technologies, and synthesizes information about diabetes-related complications and the close relationship between diabetes and other pathologies, such as cardiovascular diseases, tuberculosis, and COVID-19. The data presented here reveal that, despite advances in national responses, diabetes continues to expand, and our response remains insufficient. This report aims to draw attention to the urgent need to strengthen efforts to prevent, diagnose, and control diabetes in the Region of the Americas.
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As the culminating volume in the DCP3 series, volume 9 will provide an overview of DCP3 findings and methods, a summary of messages
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and substantive lessons to be taken from DCP3, and a further discussion of cross-cutting and synthesizing topics across the first eight volumes. The introductory chapters (1-3) in this volume take as their starting point the elements of the Essential Packages presented in the overview chapters of each volume. First, the chapter on intersectoral policy priorities for health includes fiscal and intersectoral policies and assembles a subset of the population policies and applies strict criteria for a low-income setting in order to propose a "highest-priority" essential package. Second, the chapter on packages of care and delivery platforms for universal health coverage (UHC) includes health sector interventions, primarily clinical and public health services, and uses the same approach to propose a highest priority package of interventions and policies that meet similar criteria, provides cost estimates, and describes a pathway to UHC.
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Marco Schäferhoff and colleagues critique funding estimates for the maternal and child health Millennium Development Goals,
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and make recommendations for improving the tracking of financing flows and estimating the costs of scaling up interventions for mothers and children.
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To understand the national situation, Ethiopia did a situation assessment, launched its first strategy in 2011, and took action to contain AMR, as detailed in the blue boxes found throughout this strategy. This updated version
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of the strategy was in response to the revised health and medicines policies, health sector transformation plan, and the resolutions of the 68th World Health Assembly
of May 2015 and so that Ethiopia’s efforts could be coordinated with global initiatives in the prevention and containment of AMR.
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