Expanding the range of expertise!!!......

For reasons that have only been dimly perceived by me, I have felt the need to subscribe for more than twenty years to two major policy journals. The first subscription is natural for me....HEALTH AFFAIRS.....and we discussed yesterday that journal's decision to expand it's range of interest to include environmental challenges, which are clearly meant to include socio-economic and cultural matters. We discussed yesterday some of the health disparities-relevant articles to be found in the most recent issue of HEALTH AFFAIRS, the theme for which is "Environmental Challenges for Health". Perhaps as a commentary on how boring is my life, last night I happened upon a recent issue of that other major policy to which I have longn subscribed, but have rarely read, FOREIGN AFFAIRS. The november/December 2010 issue blares out it's theme on the cover......"THE WORLD AHEAD". Fresh from the stimulation of reading HEALTH AFFAIRS' maiden environmental challenges issue, I was emboldened to look in detail at this special issue, which is clearly aimed at examining the future of our world through a dozen articles, and a closing special list of "must-read books".
The twelve articles' titles as listed on the front cover are instructive by the absence of any significant interface with the contents of the HEALTH AFFAIRS' special them issue on environmental challenges for health. On closer inspection, however, four of the articles offered some potential overlap with health matters: "Clean Energy's Future"; "The Education Gap"; "Feeding the World"; and "The Demographic Implosion". Of the many books recommended by a collection of experts, only one seemed to be directly relevant to health and health care in general and health disparities in particular, and that cam from Judith Rodin, the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, who discussed "Thinking in Systems" by Donella H. Meadows, published by Chelsea Green (2008). Dr Rodin concludes her review as follows, "Presented in a clear and concise manner, the book makes evident that in order to succeed in the world ahead,prediction, control, andsiloed analysis must be transformed into a framework in which complexities are embraced,silos broken,and partnerships welcomed. Doing so will not be easy, but as Meadows notes,only then can we 'use our insights to make a difference in ourselves and in our world'." I could not help but guess that this last words might be a useful closing commentary for our upcoming Summit on Health Equity.