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
Regulatory Policies for the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi
A project, conducted with Joint Commission International, to assist the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi in setting appropriate regulatory policies for the quality oversight of health care facilities, public health services, and health professionals.
Contact: Lee Hilborne, MD, MPH (Lee_Hilborne@rand.org) or Robin Meili, MBA (Robin_Meili@rand.org)Singapore National Health Scorecard
A collaboration with the Singapore Ministry of Health to develop a national health scorecard to measure and monitor the status of health at the national level as well as the quality of health care across multiple clinical domains.
Contact: Yee-Wei Lim, MD, PhD (Yee-Wei_Lim@rand.org)Singapore Health Care Manpower
A project to develop forecast models to project future disease burdens and health care utilization in Singapore; these models will form the foundation for health care workforce and infrastructure planning.
Contact: Yee-Wei Lim, MD, PhD (Yee-Wei_Lim@rand.org)National Mental Health Study for Singapore
A collaboration between RAND and multiple partners in Singapore to quantify the magnitude of the mental health burden in Singapore and the associated impact on the health care system and society more generally.
Contact: Yee-Wei Lim, MD, PhD (Yee-Wei_Lim@rand.org)Global Health Laboratory Capacity
A project to identify promising strategies and approaches to help the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) optimize its investments in building global laboratory infrastructure to support global surveillance and public health prevention and control initiatives.
Contact: Lee Hilborne, MD, MPH (Lee_Hilborne@rand.org)Policy Simulation Models of the HIV Epidemic in Central America
A study to update and expand existing models and consider alternatives for understanding the HIV epidemic in Central America and to identify the mix of intervention scenarios that would maximize the impact of HIV prevention efforts.
Contact: Ricky Bluthenthal, PhD (Ricky_Bluthenthal@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 the 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.
Contact: Yee-Wei Lim, MD, PhD (Yee-Wei_Lim@rand.org) or Lee Hilborne, MD, MPH (Lee_Hilborne@rand.org)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)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)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
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)
Highlights of Recent Studies
Estimating the Global Health Impact of Improved Diagnostic Tools for the Developing World
New diagnostics for tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS, bacterial pneumonia, and other diseases have the potential to save millions of lives annually in the developing world, especially if the tests are easy to use and widely accessible.
Improving Pandemic Influenza Preparedness in Southeast Asia
To help improve the region's preparedness for pandemic influenza, RAND began working in 2006 with a consortium of partners through the Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS) project, which is an ongoing collaboration among six nations—Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and China (Yunnan Province)—and developed and conducted tabletop exercises in collaboration with public health and other officials.
Developing a National Health Care Strategy for Qatar
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
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.
Building a Successful Palestinian State
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
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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