asia healthspace

Today, I stumbled upon a new, very interesting blog concept started by Adam Marcus and Ivan Oransky, addressing scientific journalism and its accuracy: Retraction Watch. In the pursuit of accountability you have to love the web enabling blogs and organizations like this, Wikileaks, and other independent forms of investigative journalism and expression. Old school media [...]

Printed with permission: Source: EIU Healthcare Report October 2009 Despite relatively low healthcare spending, Hong Kong rates well in comparisons of basic health indicators, such as life expectancy. Spending on healthcare (which tends to be resistant to economic downturns) ticked up to an estimated 6.2% of GDP in 2009, based on WHO definitions. This is [...]

Printed with permission. Source: EIU Healthcare Report December 2009 Recent increases in health expenditure have been a result of rising incomes, the growing incidence of prosperity-related chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, and the rapid ageing of the population. In 2009 healthcare spending per head in Taiwan was estimated at US$1,074, and total healthcare spending [...]

Printed with permission. Source: EIU Healthcare Report November 2009 While improving, healthcare provision in India is still characterised by huge inequalities. India spent an estimated 5% of GDP on healthcare in 2009. This is more than neighbouring Pakistan (which spent 2.4% of GDP on healthcare), and China (4.7%), but far less than the G7 average [...]

Printed with permission. Source: EIU Healthcare Report January 2010 As China has developed, healthcare spending has risen, leading to an improvement in health indicators. A massive reform programme is now under way. As with most other economic indicators, healthcare spending in China has risen rapidly, increasing from US$1.7bn in 1980 to US$208bn in 2008. Nevertheless, [...]

Ever since I was a young lad of 17 years age (let’s just say at least 2 decades have passed!) I have been feverishly following the world of politics and economics. No journal or publication has informed and influenced me more than the Economist. Growing up in a small blue-collar Canadian town (Sarnia, Ontario), one [...]

The following general insights were provided by Ivy Teh when interviewed for a recent press release. 1. Is there a general way to characterize the difference between Asia-Pacific-style pricing and reimbursement policies as compared to US? Firstly, one must understand that the Asia Pacific region is a highly diverse one. There are countries ranging from [...]

Yesterday I had the pleasure of having lunch with Bloomberg’s Asia Health and Science correspondent, Simeon Bennett. He was kind enough to share with me a very interesting but alarming piece that he researched for Bloomberg back in May of 2009. It is a insightful article which exposes the seamy underbelly of pharmaceutical capitalism in [...]

Ranking according to Outlook India

Interesting article on surrogacy and forced abortions in China posted in Reuters…which I will use to introduce a very bright woman, Harpreet Bedi, who asiahealthspace is proud to announce will be joining as a periodic contributor with a special interest in medico-legal issues. We persistently endeavor to bring you a variety of opinions about a [...]