2. Success in Addressing Priorities

Abstract

At the most general level, priorities in health are clear: identify the cost–effective interventions for those diseases that impose the largest burdens—around the globe or in target regions or populations that exhibit grave need or inequity—and determine how to deliver those interventions effectively, efficiently, and equitably. Science and medicine have shown that many interventions can be effective. Combining this knowledge with economic analyses of cost–effectiveness identifies which interventions can achieve the greatest health gains with a given level of resources. Making such health gains a reality requires implementing the selected interventions, a challenge that countries with effective health systems are better able to handle, but one that countries without effective health systems can deal with by improving their existing health systems or constructing them where they are lacking.