Chasing goals rather than solving problems?

By Linda P. Fried and Lynn P. Freedman

We stand at an unprecedented moment in global health: advances in public health science enable us to project health trends into the future as never before and to understand how to prevent or effectively treat many of the significant global health concerns - or position us to figure out more effective approaches. We also have global experience in setting goals, deploying resources, and observing outcomes. This is a critical time to be cognizant of the broad changes that are in process and take stock of whether current approaches will serve us well in this changing world. This article seeks to reflect on both of these issues and suggest on how each can inform the other for future success in improving global health.