Health Policy and Initiatives

BOLLYKY: Great. Well, let’s get started. I think I actually know most people in the room. But good afternoon. I’m Tom Bollyky. I direct the Global Health Program here at the Council. It is my grea…

When Dr. Robert Grossman was named dean and chief executive officer of NYU Langone Health in 2007, the organization faced an operating loss of $120 million. Twelve years later, NYU Langone is a profitable institution with a top-ranked medical school poised to offer free tuition to all students. Please join Robert Grossman as he discusses his business strategy and lessons learned from leading a large healthcare organization. The CEO Speaker Series is a unique forum for leading global CEOs to share their insights on issues at the center of commerce and foreign policy, and to discuss the changing role of business globally.

More than four billion people lack access to safe sanitation, which has profound implications for public heath, physical safety, women's rights, and human dignity. Health problems stemming from this lack of access cost the global economy over $200 billion each year. Please join our panelists for a discussion on the challenges and prospects for improving access to sanitation in the developing world.  

The symposium held on April 16, 2019 explored the changing relationship of trade and health. The event convened experts to discuss the incidence of heart disease, diabetes, and other noncommunicable diseases rising in poor nations, as well as the overuse of existing antibiotics and underinvestment in new ones threatening to bring about a post-antibiotic era. The panels examined the deep tensions between health, trade, and commercial interests generated by efforts to confront these health concerns. The event was sponsored by CFR's Global Health Program with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Panelists will discuss the links between democratic governance and global health.

The future of global health is urban. There are 4.2 billion city dwellers worldwide, accounting for 55 percent of the world’s population. The population of city dwellers globally is projected to grow by 2.5 billion by 2050, with nearly 90 percent in lower-income nations in Africa and Asia. The evidence suggests that urban residents have better health than their rural counterparts but that the advantages of urban life are unevenly distributed. Too little attention has been given to the essential role of health-care delivery, especially among poorer and more vulnerable populations. With shared challenges, there is an opportunity for health-care providers to low-income populations in different nations to learn from one another. The featured speakers for this discussion were Alex Ezeh, professor of global health at the Dornsife School of Public Health at Drexel University in Philadelphia, and Nilesh Kalyanaraman, chief health officer at Health Care for the Homeless in Baltimore. 

In advance of World Cancer Day, speakers discuss developments in cancer treatment and prevention, and the prospects for closing the global cancer divide. 

Archbishop Albert Chama, Rebecca Vander Meulen, Robert W. Radtke, and Charles K. Robertson discuss mobilizing Anglican communities toward eliminating malaria.