Universal health care in middle-income countries: Lessons from four countries.

Background: In this paper, we review lessons learned about Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in middle-income countries, with specific reference to achievements and challenges observed during recent years in four middle-income to upper-middle-income countries - Mexico, Turkey, The Republic of Korea and Ukraine. Three of these countries - Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Turkey are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Ukraine has aspired to join Western institutions like the OECD since its independence in 1991.

Policies to mitigate health inequity: a comparison of Israel and 24 developing countries.

Efforts to mitigate health inequity are at the heart of health policy in Israel and in many developing countries seeking to advance toward universal health coverage. This commentary uses the conceptual framework and the description of health policy interventions presented in a recent IJHPR article to compare policies implemented by Israel's Ministry of Health during 2011-2014 with policies under implementation in 24 developing countries, and identifies key differences and similarities. It also identifies three areas of policy where Israel seems to have strong capacities that are in high demand in developing countries.

Transforming Global Health by Improving the Science of Scale-Up.

In its report Global Health 2035, the Commission on Investing in Health proposed that health investments can reduce mortality in nearly all low- and middle-income countries to very low levels, thereby averting 10 million deaths per year from 2035 onward. Many of these gains could be achieved through scale-up of existing technologies and health services. A key instrument to close this gap is policy and implementation research (PIR) that aims to produce generalizable evidence on what works to implement successful interventions at scale.

High-intensity focused ultrasound treatment in refractory glaucoma patients: results at 1 year of prospective clinical study.

Purpose: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of the ultrasonic circular cyclo-coagulation procedure using high-intensity focused ultrasound by a miniaturized annular device containing 6 piezoceramic transducers in patients with refractory glaucoma.

Methods: This was a prospective interventional noncomparative study of 20 eyes of 20 patients with refractory glaucoma. All eyes were treated with 6 activated transducers operating at 21 MHz.