Global Health
Other nations face many of the same challenges as the United States in balancing costs, quality of care, and access to care and effectively addressing public health priorities. RAND Health has a distinguished tradition of analyzing health care and public health issues and providing technical assistance to governments and health organizations around the world. Current projects are briefly described below.
Profiles of Current Research
Primary Care in Palestine
A joint project with Columbia University's Institute on Human Nutrition to assist the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) in Palestine in strengthening UNRWA's primary care delivery system, especially regarding nutrition and the prevention and management of chronic illness.
Contact: Michael Schoenbaum, PhD (Michael_Schoenbaum@rand.org)National University of Singapore Centre for Health Services Research
A collaboration between RAND Health and the National University of Singapore to accelerate the development and implementation of a Centre for Health Services Research within the university's Faculty of Medicine to address national needs for health outcomes research to inform public health care policy.
Contacts: Yee-Wei Lim, MD, PhD (Yee-Wei_Lim@rand.org) or Lee Hilborne, MD, MPH (Lee_Hilborne@rand.org)HIV Outreach in Latin America
An exploratory project to examine the role of faith-based organizations in HIV prevention and care in the Latin American countries of Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala.
Contact: Kathryn Pitkin Derose, PhD, MPH (Kathryn_Derose@rand.org)Strengthening Sub-Regional Infectious Disease Surveillance in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South Asia
Projects to support the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) in the strategic development and implementation of activities involving three sub-regional partnerships (in the Mekong Basin of Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia), all oriented around cooperation in infectious disease surveillance and control.
Contact: Melinda Moore, MD, MPH (Melinda_Moore@rand.org)Impact of Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Africa
A study to examine the impact of ART on the economic output (work status), social well-being (households living intact versus dissolution or displacement, children attending school), and HIV protective behaviors (safe sex, HIV disclosure) of patients and their households in Africa.
Contact: Glenn Wagner, PhD (Glenn_Wagner@rand.org)Costs of Providing Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Sub-Saharan Africa
A project to identify and estimate total per-patient costs associated with the provision of ART in sites funded by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as the costs associated with selected clinic-level components of care.
Contact: Julia Aledort, PhD (Julia_Aledort@rand.org)Social and Behavioral HIV Research Capacity Building in Uganda
A research consortium to strengthen the research infrastructure and capacity of Makerere University and its local community partners to enable the university's investigators to conduct rigorous social and behavioral HIV research that will begin to address the challenges facing Uganda with regard to HIV prevention and ART scale-up.
Contact: Glenn Wagner, PhD (Glenn_Wagner@rand.org)Taiwan Pay-for-Performance in Breast Cancer
An evaluation of an ongoing pay-for-performance pilot project to improve the quality of breast cancer care in Taiwan and help plan for the expansion of the project to other conditions and other hospitals in Taiwan.
Contact: Steven Asch, MD, MPH (Steven_Asch@rand.org)
Highlights of Recent Studies
Developing a National Health Care Strategy for Qatar — 2007
RAND has been working with the State of Qatar to develop and operationalize a world-class health care system designed to optimize the health of its residents.
Health System Reconstruction and Nation-Building— 2007
Findings from a study of past attempts to rebuild public health and health care delivery systems during nation-building efforts after U.S. military deployments indicate that such efforts cannot succeed unless adequate attention is paid to the population's health.
Determining the Global Health Impact of Improved Diagnostic Technologies for the Developing World— 2007
New diagnostics have the potential to save millions of lives annually, especially if the diagnostics are quick and easy to use.
Read More at Nature.com
The Challenges of Creating a Global Health Resource Tracking System
To provide an up-to-date, comprehensive picture of the health resources available to developing countries, a comprehensive data collection strategy is needed, one that makes it possible to accurately show the resources being brought to bear by all parties—developing countries, developed countries, international organizations, corporations, and private nonprofit organizations—to combat disease and improve health in developing countries.
Building a Successful Palestinian State — 2005
A new Palestinian state is more likely to succeed if it has a high level of territorial contiguity (apart from the separation of Gaza and the West Bank), relatively open borders, and security within Palestine and for its neighbors.
The Arc: A Formal Structure for a Palestinian State — 2005
An infrastructure corridor linking the West Bank and Gaza could create conditions for economic development and sustainable population growth and engender a common sense of purpose.
Related Web Sites
RAND Center for Domestic and International Health Security
http://www.rand.org/health/centers/healthsecurity/
RAND Palestine studies
RAND Global Health Diagnostics
Working with Congress
RAND's Washington Office of Congressional Relations (OCR) furthers RAND's mission to provide objective analysis and effective solutions by disseminating research results to Congress and federal agencies. The OCR publishes a monthly electronic newsletter featuring current work on health policy. Contact: Shirley Ruhe (Shirley_Ruhe@rand.org) or Kristy Anderson (kristy@rand.org).
The RAND Health Congressional Newsletter
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