Day Three Morning: Wednesday, 26 March 2003

Globalization and Healthcare

Plenary Session: Lessons from the Models of Healthcare Systems

Is it possible to compare the governing laws of different societies’ healthcare systems? The laws themselves vary from place to place, while the human genome is 99.9 percent identical across the globe.

A protocol created to treat a given disease in one society should therefore be applicable to treat the same disease in any other. Accordingly, globalization of the treatment of disease should be easy; in reality it is profoundly complicated by differences in social policy, political will, resource availability, government transparency and social justice.

It is a goal of GMF II to analyze this interaction of global treatments with local conditions and thereby to suggest a positive way forward in the global healthcare debate. Healthcare and society are not inherently antithetical but can instead be mutually supportive; both require the advancement of learning for the creation of an educated patient /citizen base.

Speakers at the plenary session have each been asked to address this two-sided equation from a different perspective – regional, global, scientific and political.

Seminar 1: Dissemination of Medical Knowledge and Globalization

In order to maximize the benefits of medical innovation through globalized treatment, at least two kinds of knowledge dissemination are required: High-level medical knowledge to practitioners and practical medical knowledge to the patients (the entire society). The variables which affect the latter are far greater than those which affect the former; it is the former with which the seminar is concerned.

Wide vision is required for success in this educational effort, for unity does not exist between the order, perturbations and randomness of science, and the chaos of the societies in which healthcare is meant to be implemented.

Seminar 1 will attempt to address this issue through an evaluation of the existing formats for dissemination of professional medical knowledge. How can these be improved and are they suitable for global implementation?

Seminar 2: Economic Impact of the Health Status of a Society

Seminar 2 explores the direct relationship between the local factors discussed at the plenary session – most especially poverty, social justice and public policy – and the complementary health system from each society. How are these two sides intertwined? Is there a direct relationship between bad healthcare and government corruption? What is the role of international organizations in making this relationship transparent? What is the responsibility of rich societies to poor societies given the centrality of social factors to local healthcare?

Site Links

Executive Summary
Forum Goals
GMF II Program
Key Management

Day One, Morning
Day One, Afternoon
Day Two, Morning
Day Two, Afternoon
Day Three, Morning
Day Three, Afternoon
Social Program
Host – Rüschlikon

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