Global health briefs - October 2013

Reports assess health in six world areas

The leading causes of premature mortality and disability in the world are shifting, dramatically in many cases, according to six regional reports from the World Bank Group and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The reports also describe each region's policy efforts to improve health.

• View the collection of Policy Reports from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) .

mHealth toolkit addresses privacy issues

A new report on mhealth and privacy offers a legal framework that can be tailored to different cultures, environments and scenarios. Produced by the mHealth Alliance and several partners, the resource provides guidance on how to protect health data collected and transmitted over mobile devices.

• Read about and download the report Patient Privacy in a Mobile World from the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Geneticists push for global data-sharing plan

Privacy concerns are hampering the sharing of genomic and related clinical data. To change this, more than 70 leading health care, advocacy and research organizations, including NIH, have pledged to develop technical and regulatory standards for ethical and safe data exchange.

• Read the related June 4, 2013 article International partners describe global alliance to enable secure sharing of genomic and clinical data from the Broad Institute.

AAMC creates network for med students

A global health network has been established to provide final-year medical students in the U.S. and abroad with international opportunities to pursue clinical, research or other public health activities. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) recently launched the Global Health Learning Opportunities (GHLO) Collaborative to spur research innovation and global understanding.

Peace Corps recruits medical educators

The U.S. Peace Corps, collaborating with the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the nonprofit group Seed Global Health, has sent its first 30 volunteer doctor and nurse educators to Tanzania, Malawi and Uganda for a year to help build health care capacity.

• Learn more about the Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP) program for medical and nursing professionals from the Peach Corps.

Africa's health challenges examined

A recent World Bank report suggests African health authorities should explore how best to leverage existing resources to deal with the growing numbers of citizens with noncommunicable diseases and road traffic injuries.

• Read about and download the full report The challenge of non-communicable diseases and road traffic injuries in Sub-Saharan Africa from The World Bank.

Non-epidemic AIDS areas are a concern

Greater attention should be paid to HIV/AIDS in parts of the world where it has not yet reached epidemic levels, according to "The Burden of HIV" report from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. HIV/AIDS deaths rose in 98 countries during 2006-2010.

• Read the related August 21, 2013 article Growing share of HIV/AIDS burden shifts to changing group of regions from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
• Access the full report The burden of HIV: insights from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 from AIDS, the Journal of the International AIDS Society.

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