It may be easier to raise funds for research into high-profile diseases like AIDS, malaria or TB, but money spent on this is diverted from improving health systems in poor countries. According to a WHO report, development assistance for health increased four times from $US5.6 billion in 1990 to $US21.8 billion in 2007. Until now, it was not known how that money was spent and whether it was directed effectively towards the everyday work of hospitals and clinics.

I’m trying to keep a straight face, but the National Institute for Health and Clinical Expertise (NICE) is exploring whether the medical profession should use ‘Patient important outcome measures’. It’s a bit like stepping up to reach out for significant collaborative outcomes. Seriously though, medicine has for too long worried about the effects of treatment without asking the people being treated.