This afternoon I strolled over to at Penn Nursing to attend a wonderful lecture by Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet: “Bonfire of the Professions: Prospects for Global Health.” He talked about the need for inter-professionalism and how that is especially needed for global health. The lecture reminded me of lessons that I have learned from Peter Singer and Erich Loewy: bioethics must focus less on the narrow clinical issues of a few more on the big problems facing the many. Dr. Horton remarked that “no self-respecting health center should not have a center or institute of global health.” We just celebrated the milestone of 7 billion people on Earth. By 2050, that number will reach 9 billion. Most of those will be in Sub-Saharan Africa, the area least prepared to deal with such growth. I am glad that I devoted at least one publication this year to public health (a chapter in Prevention vs. Treatment, Oxford University Press Oct. 2011). One of my 2012 New Years resolutions is to do more next year.
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