The Lancet Commission on Investing in Health, a team consisting of 50 economists and global health experts, including DUPRI visiting scholar Omar Karlsson, has released it's Global Health 2050 final report.
In the Global Health 2050 report (GH2050), the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health (CIH) provides a roadmap for countries at all income levels to achieve dramatic improvements in human welfare by mid-century. The report, available at https://globalhealth2050.org/, comes at a time when global health faces many headwinds—from geopolitical tensions, ongoing and new conflicts, and increasingly manifest climate change to slowed progress towards universal health coverage (UHC), rising healthcare costs, and the ever-present risk of pandemics. GH2050 shows that even in the face of these challenges, there is a practical pathway for nations that choose to do so to sharply reduce premature death and morbidity by focusing resources on high priority conditions and scaling up financing to develop and deliver new health technologies. Written by an international team of 50 economists and global health experts, the report reached seven key conclusions.
- Global Health 2050, the third report of the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health, concludes that countries that choose to do so could achieve the goal of "50 by 50"—a 50% reduction in the probability of premature death, i.e., death before age 70 years, by 2050
- The 50 by 50 goal can be reached by focusing on 15 priority conditions, eight related to infectious diseases and maternal health and seven related to non-communicable diseases and injuries
- A modular approach to health-system strengthening supports an initial tight focus on these 15 priority conditions and a gradual broadening of effort as the priority conditions are more fully addressed
- Public financing of a short list of drugs and other commodities can steer health systems towards delivering high-priority health interventions targeting these 15 conditions
- A high level of tobacco taxation is by far the most important intersectoral policy to help to achieve the 50 by 50 goal
- There is an exceptionally high mortality risk from pandemics, and in the next pandemic, while waiting for a vaccine to be developed, public health fundamentals, such as rapid action, case identification and isolation, and contact tracing and quarantine, will be key to averting mortality
- Development assistance for health can help achieve 50 by 50 in two ways: (i) direct support to countries with the least resources to help them to address the 15 priority conditions , and (ii) funding global public goods, such as developing new health technologies