Saturday, November 03, 2007

PLoS Medicine- Poverty and Global Health Issue


Check out PLoS Medicine's October 22nd issue on global poverty and human development:

We asked a wide variety of commentators worldwide—including clinicians, medical researchers, health reporters, policy makers, health activists, and development experts—to name the single intervention that they think would improve the health of those living in poverty. We also asked four individuals living in poor, rural agricultural communities in the Santillana district, province of Huanta, Ayacucho, Peru to give us their response to the question, “What do you think would do the most to improve your health and the health of your family?” (The four community members were Severino Rojas Poma, Mercedes Vargas Soto, Julián De La Cruz Chahua, and Martín Rojas Poma). Our October 2007 Editorial discusses this debate further.

Of note, now that I live outside the ivory tower, I appreciate PLoS's open access publishing. What's with medical journals charging $30 to download scintific studies that were funding by taxpayer money in the first place? This is just another hurdle for students, researcers, medical schools, doctors, and hospitals in poor countries that can't afford subscriptions to scientific journals.

PLoS Medicine believes that medical research is an international public resource. The journal provides an open-access venue for important, peer-reviewed advances in all disciplines. With the ultimate aim of improving human health, we encourage research and comment that address the global burden of disease.

PLoS Medicine (eISSN 1549-1676; ISSN-1549-1277) is an open-access, peer-reviewed medical journal published monthly online by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), a nonprofit organization. The inaugural issue was published on 19 October 2004.

No comments: