Newborn deaths account for 57% of deaths in children younger than 5 years in Pakistan. Although a large programme of trained lady health workers (LHWs) exists, the effectiveness of this training on newborn outcomes has
not been studied.
India has a severe shortage of human resources for health. It has a shortage of qualified health workers and the workforce is concentrated in urban areas. Bringing qualified health workers to rural, remote, and underserved areas is very challenging. Many Indians, especially those living in rural areas, receive care from unqualified providers.
The National Commission for Human Resources in Health Bill proposes some bold reforms in medical education but stops well short of a comprehensive cure.
The National Health Policy (NIH), 2002 envisages that keeping in mind the availability and spread of allopathic graduates in their jurisdiction, state governments would consider the need for expanding the pool of medical practitioners to include a cadre of licentiates of medical practice, as also practitioners of Indian systems of medicine and homeopathy.
The lack of skilled service providers in rural areas of India has emerged as the most important constraint in achieving universal health care. India has about 1.4 million medical practitioners, 74% of whom live in urban areas where they serve only 28% of the population, while the rural population remains largely underserved.
Unless effective tobacco control is in place, most tobacco-related deaths in the coming decades are likely to be seen in low and middle income countries. Tobacco surveillance among medical students offers an opportunity to assess the preparedness for tobacco control among future health care professionals in India.
David Henry discusses a research article by Geoffrey Spurling and colleagues that examined the relationship between exposure to promotional material from pharmaceutical companies and the quality, quantity, and cost of prescribing.
Pharmaceutical companies spent $57.5 billion on pharmaceutical promotion in the United States in 2004. The industry claims that promotion provides scientific and educational information to physicians. While some evidence indicates that promotion may adversely influence prescribing, physicians hold a wide range of views about pharmaceutical promotion.
