Great videos on health issues

AlJazeera is well know by their great news coverage, especially of middle-eastern issues and most notably of the unrest across the Arab world in the past few months.

But, as I have recently discovered, they are also really good at producing long features that shed light into issues that don't receive much attention from news outfits.

Here are two examples of really interesting health issues:

The first one aired last December on their "101 East" program. By focusing on the disparities between top private hospitals and resource constrained public hospitals, it not only uncovers some of the inequities embedded in Thailand's health system -common to many middle income countries- but it also reveals some of the risks to developing countries of pursuing medical tourism as an economic strategy. I am not trying to advocate against medical tourism, just pointing to useful lessons that other countries could learn from Thailand and adopt mitigating measures as part of their policies. One such measure might be having a policy and regulatory framework that explicitly integrates the private sector to the health system and a health financing mechanism that allows low and middle income patients the choice to be treated at both private and public and private health facilities.

Enjoy:




The second one is a series of three aired last March in their "Witness" program. I really liked the way it takes the time to cover both the clinical but also the social implications of obstetric fistula in Ethiopia. It also shows that well run public health facilities can make a big difference in people's lives. If you watch with a critical eye, you may also find that the way public health systems have been built in most developing countries, top specialized facilities in the capital can only be accessed by people in rural and remote locations if there is a deliberate intervention to reach out to them form the center.

Enjoy: