Medical journal The Lancet has launched an initiative called The Lancet Global Health Network (http://www.thelancetglobalhealthnetwork.com) to scale up its global health campaigns and create an archive of science for health and human development. The new, editorially independent initiative will search and archive evidence, commission new analyses, devise programmatic recommendations, formulate proposals, and campaign for action in critical areas of international health and development.
The Lancet Global Health Network's publications will include disease and country reports, which will focus mainly, but not exclusively, on health in low- and middle-income countries. Reports in 2008 will include Maternal and Child Under-nutrition; HIV Prevention; Primary Healthcare; Trade and Health; a report in collaboration with the China Medical Board looking at the wide range of health system challenges facing China over the next decade; a report examining present predicaments and future prospects for India's rapidly developing and diverse health system; and a report investigating the future trajectory of health reforms in Pakistan. In addition, the journal will be publishing briefer reports updating past work on Child Survival, Human Rights for Health, and Research for Health.
The launch of the new network coincides with two new Lancet initiatives. In the first, The Lancet will collaborate with the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation to track global health trends. The second initiative sees the journal launching a joint Commission with University College London, UK, to study and report on managing the health effects of climate change. The annual Lancet-UCL Lecture on Global Health will take place in the final quarter of 2008.
