Global health scholarship has failed to adequately consider the “BRIC” cluster of nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China - particularly in the aggregate. An article search with the keywords “BRIC” and “public health” yields just one publication. But these countries have a unique...

Drug abuse and transmission of HIV during pregnancy are public health problems that adversely affect pregnant women, their children and surrounding communities. Programs that address this vulnerable population have the ability to be cost-effective due to resulting cost savings for mother, child...

I trace the evolution of ethical approaches to health policy in the United States and examine a number of critical unresolved issues pertaining to the current set of frameworks. Several themes emerge. First, fair procedures claim more attention than substantive and procedural principles. Second,...

Responding to Eugene Volokh, Medical Self-Defense, Prohibited Experimental Therapies, and Payment for Organs, 120 Harv. L. Rev. 1813 (2007) Professor Volokh argues for a constitutional right to medical self-defense for two purposes: first, to allow terminally ill patients to purchase, at their...

This article examines the impact of theWorld Bank’s Safe Motherhood Project (SMP) on health outcomes for Indonesia’s poor. Provincial data from 1990 to 2005 was analyzed combining a difference-in-differences approach in multivariate regression analysis with matching of intervention (SMP) and...

With the Paul Wolfowitz era behind it and new appointee Robert Zoellick at the helm, it is time for the World Bank to better define its role in an increasingly crowded and complex global health architecture, says Jennifer Prah Ruger, health economist and former World Bank speechwriter

Background: Concern about ambulance diversion and emergency department (ED) overcrowding has increased scrutiny of ambulance use. Knowledge is limited, however, about clinical and economic factors associated with ambulance use compared to other arrival methods. Objectives: To compare clinical...

The appointment of Paul Wolfowitz to take over as World Bank chief prompted a barrage of criticism from activists concerned about his role in the Iraq war. But are these protests justified? Health economist and former World Bank speechwriter Jennifer Prah Ruger reviews the evidence

In efforts to decrease emergency department (ED) crowding and health care costs, frequent users of ED services have been targeted for interventions to decrease their utilization. Previous studies have had different definitions for frequent users and have considered all frequent users as a...

Objectives: To determine if differences exist in hospital and intensive care unit (ICU)/operating room admission rates based on health insurance status. Methods: This was a retrospective, cross-sectional study of data from hospital clinical and financial records for all 2001 emergency department...