Disparities in health status, access to health care and to the benefits of medical research

Health status disparities is the< difference in the health care in a population group. The health disparity refers to an advanced affliction of illness, disability and injury experienced by a specific population that may be comparative to another group. Health care disparity is the differences in health care coverage, availability of health care, and the care quality. The disparities are normally considered by referring to ethnicity and race. These disparities also occur in many dimensions that include socio-economic status, disability status, age, location, sexual orientation, gender, and location (Kaiser, (2012).

The disparities in the health care system has adverse effects on the continual improvement of the health care quality since it results in unnecessary expenditures. According to recent analysis, 30 percent of individual medical costs are excess costs to the health sector due to the untamed health care disparities. This leads to an economic loss estimate of 309 billion US dollars per year as far as the disparities costs are concerned. As the population diversifies it is paramount to address the health care disparities so as to account for the increasing population and finally countering its general effect. The number of dis-proportionate groups today are running a risk of not being insured medically. This therefore worsens their health outcomes since they may lack access to health services, and also affect the low-income generation. Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indian Natives and other low-income individuals are likely to be uninsured compared to the Whites and the high-income individuals. The Low-income individuals also suffer adverse barriers to the access of good health care and hence worsening their health outcomes (Kaiser, (2012).

Health care disparities is the main problem facing United States health care system. It limits the possibility of a continued improvement in the general service being offered by the health care institutions due to increased unnecessary costs with respect to the existence of different types of population groups (Kaiser, (2012). Health research is very beneficial as far as the development of new medical treatments and drugs are concerned. The advancement in the health care sector helps a lot to ensure that health researchers access technology that will greatly help them to come up with solutions to several health care and disease related problems. Responding to the threat of infectious diseases. The threat of an infectious disease is ongoing to the livelihoods of individuals everywhere and also the health of the general population at large. Governments and other organizations have come up with global efforts and approaches of dealing with this infectious disease threat. Their main aim is the readiness to face it and fight it with everything with the aim of ensuring the safety and health of the depending population at large (Kaiser, 2014).

These institutions have targeted to build and strengthen a set of connected systems for outbreak detection, prevention, and response. This global effort includes several activities considered with the aim of guaranteeing its success. They range from vaccine research, disease surveillance, drug development, trainings and other behavioral prevention campaigns.

The International Health Regulations is a legally-binding document that highlights the international agreements between the World Health Organization member-states requiring countries to come up with a less detection, notification and reporting capacity with respect to emerging infectious diseases. They should easily identify any potential outbreak and possible heath care emergencies that may need the international assistance as far as probable effects are considered. Additionally, the World Health Organization plays a major role in dealing with disease outbreaks by serving individuals with respect to the international standards set by the member-states. They are respond faster and hence have a higher probability of dealing with the possible threats of infectious diseases and finally neutralizing it in time (Kaiser, 2014).

International cooperation in health monitoring and surveillance The international community have passed a Health Regulations act that ensures that all countries commit themselves collectively in case of a health emergency. This types of emergencies may be affecting a specific region at a specific time with a threat of extending to other places. The best example is the outbreak of a deadly infectious disease like H1N1 or the Ebola virus that may wipe a community within a very short time. In case of an outbreak like this, several countries come together with respect to the Health Regulations and combine their resources to effectively fight the outbreak (Coleman, Bouesseau, & Reis, 2008). The Health Regulations act ensures that every country’s obligation is to act appropriately and enforce issues without any dilemmas so as to guarantee efficient and effective termination of the health emergencies. The monitoring of infections extends to food contamination and the surveillance of other diseases that may require multidisciplinary approach. This unit may require microbiological expertise in which a specific country could have advanced better that the other due to the technological advancement. This is where the respective country will request for assistance from the able country that hence offer their services according to the Health Regulations. Exploitation of individuals in low- income countries. There have been a number of debates about the effect of health research in low-income or developing countries. The controversies raised are mainly centered on the standards of the health care institutions, the international interventions in case of research trials, and the quality of the health professionals consent. Ethical frameworks have been proposed for effective clinical research in the low-income countries with the aim of minimizing or reducing the possibilities of exploitation (Emanuel, Wendler, Killen, & Grady, 2006).

In the developed countries, exploitation of individuals or the surrounding communities has been greatly minimized since the society is responsible in finding researchers and the research institutions with the aim improving health institutions. On the other hand, there is a high risk of exploitation in low-income countries. Communities and individuals in the developing countries bear the risks of research but the benefits from the research normally go to the individuals in the developed countries. This is evident since several clinical trials are done in the developing countries.

Moreover, the infrastructures responsible for minimizing the exploitation risks may be less in the developing countries compared to the developed countries. This is normally due to the high poverty index, high illiteracy levels and limited health care institutions. Also in the developing countries, there is the partnership between the sponsors and health researchers. The partnership helps to reduce the possibility of exploitation. The developing countries on the other hand face adverse challenges in ensuring continuous engagement between the existing communities and the researchers hence making it unlikely to have a lasting impact as far as the health research in concerned. To avoid this, communities ought to be involved with recruitments since it helps to create jobs to them and hence making them to support the researchers until their respective research goals have been achieved (Emanuel, Wendler, Killen, & Grady, 2006).

Health Promotion Health promotion is the way of enabling individuals to control their health status and its aspects with the aim of improving their health. It highlights the World Health Organization concept of health in which each person or specific group is capable of realizing the health aspirations facing them and hence come up with possible solutions to satisfy their needs with the aim of coping with the changing environment. The Organization has come up with a dynamic model in which health is considered an everyday life resource rather that being a state. It is seen as a positive aspect that emphasizes the social and other personal resources (Ottawa, 2004).

It is also responsible in ensuring that there is sufficient and safe water and food supplies in every nation. This is made achievable by countering any possible environmental threats that may affect the production of sustainable food products. It has a framework responsible for regulating and controlling the possible infectious disease outbreaks. Health promotion does not only target risk factors but also it is responsible in enhancing each individual’s ability to make improvements to his/her health (Ottawa, 2004).

The main goal behind this is to create an environment that can support the individual’s health status with minimum interventions. Its main aim is the prevention of diseases by reducing the possibility of its occurrences. It also strives to create a context that health institutions can evolve with the aim of satisfying any neighboring groups by targeting local issues affecting health. Several health promotion strategies were set during the Ottawa health international conference in 1987. They include: Re-orientation of health services, building the public health policy, creation of supportive environments, and strengthening the community actions in case of diseases (Ottawa, 2004).

Participation, transparency, and accountability Health care systems and institutions are faced with a number of challenges ranging from resource scarcity to the lack of enough personnel to deal with rising cases of health problems. Most of these problems may be politically instigated or caused by other managerial factors in which top level individuals decide on issues with respect to their personal and selfish gains instead of considering the general feeling of the health institution (Maluka, 2011).

To ensure transparency, accountability and participation of each individual in the health care system, some specific priorities have to be set in each health institution. This includes the rationing of resource allocation to ensure completion of tasks in time and to reduce the probability of resource wastage. The priority setting is the formulation of specific rules to be used in deciding and distributing health care resources effectively among the competing patient’s needs. The priority setting go further to other options like efficiency and effectiveness. It may lead to other outcomes which can affect multiple population groups. This is where accountability comes in to ensure a fair priority allocation process. This fairness will help to reduce conflicts in the health sector as far as the available resources are concerned. Fairness is achievable when institutions give room for debating with the aim of identifying the correct process that will produce acceptable results socially. It allows individuals to talk their minds since every person will be able to propose approaches which they prefer and then analyzed together to identify the possible benefits and disadvantages and then the best available solution is chosen (Maluka, 2011).

The legitimate priority setting will ensure fairness within the health sector since all branches are considered before any decision is made. Each individual is involved in decision making process and the respective reports are provided to each individual without biasness.

References Coleman, C. H., Bouesseau, M. C. & Reis, A. (2008). The contribution of ethics to public health. Bulleting of the World Health Organization, 8.

Emanuel, E. J., Wendler, D., Killen, J. & Grady, C. (2006). What Make Clinical Research in Developing Countries Ethical? The Benchmarks of Ethical Research. The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 189, 930-937. Retrieved May 24, 2015, from http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/189/5/930.long

Kaiser, H. J. (2012). Disparities in Health and Health Care: Five Key Questions and Answers. Retrieved May 25, 2015, from http://kff.org/disparities-policy/issue-brief/disparities-in-health-and-health-care-five-key-questions-and-answers/

Kaiser, H. J. (2014). The U.S. Government & Global Emerging Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response. Retrieved May 26, 2015, from http://kff.org/global-health-policy/fact-sheet/the-u-s-government-global-emerging-infectious-disease-preparedness-and-response/

Maluka, S. O. (2011). Strengthening fairness, transparency and accountability in health care priority setting at district level in Tanzania. Global Health Action, 4. Retrieved May 24, 2015, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3211296/

Ottawa, U. (2004). Health Promotion. Retrieved May 23, 2015, from http://www.med.uottawa.ca/sim/data/Health_Promotion_e.htm