DCP3 Advisory Committee Chair and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Vice Director Anne Mills was recognized this summer with two notable honors.
Firstly, Professor Mills published a piece on health economics in the July 2014 edition of the Proceedings of the Royal Society. In her piece, Professor Mills cites the contributions of the Disease Control Priorities projects - including the forthcoming DCP3 - as an important initiative in the rise of health economics as a consequential sub-discipline. She describes DCP as a database for measurements of costs and effects, "with chapters covering the major causes of disease in low- and middle-income countries, and providing information on disease burden and the cost-effectiveness of interventions."
Secondly, at the Office of Health Economics (OHE) 22nd annual lecture earlier this summer, Professor Mills presented on the issues and challenges around universal health coverage (UHC) in low- and middle-income countries. With the expiration date of the Millennium Development Goals rapidly approaching, Professor Mills outlined three core challenges that must be solved in order to achieve universal health coverage (UHC):
- Financing - Implementing mechanisms such as tax revenue or social health insurance to finance UHC
- Financial intermediaries - Finding an effective mix of funding systems in both the public and private sectors
- Service providers - ensuring that access to sufficient services is available to the poorest populations
A detailed synopsis of Professor Mills' presentation can be found here, including her Powerpoint slides.