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Biomedical subjects

M Terris

Publications and source records attributed to M Terris.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

The neoliberal triad of anti-health reforms: government budget cutting, deregulation, and privatization.

This paper presents the author's experiences and perceptions of the neoliberal triad of anti-health reforms--government budget cutting, deregulation, and privatization--which have been promulgated worldwide by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The causes of this phenomenon are analyzed, and specific alternative health policies are recommended. The role of epidemiology in documenting the damages to health resulting from the anti-health reforms is discussed. Finally, the paper emphasizes the need not only for national organizational strategies but for action on the international level. The opponents of privatization need to meet together, to exchange experiences, and to develop effective strategies on a world scale that can be applied in industrial and developing nations.

Budgets↗
PubMed1998

Lean and mean: the quality of care in the era of managed care.

This paper reviews the genesis of managed care and the reasons for its rapid growth. The effects of the differing incentives of traditional and managed-care plans on quality of care are described. There is an urgent need for federal, state and local health departments to monitor and regulate the quantity and quality of health care provided by all types of insurance plans. The elements of such a program are outlined, and the need for adequate funding as well as political and technical leadership is emphasized. This should become a major priority issue for the public health movement in the United States.

Fee-for-Service Plans↗
PubMed1998

Epidemiology and health policy in the Americas: meeting the neoliberal challenge.

This paper analyses the anti-health policies and programs that are being pursued by neoliberal governments on a global scale, and that are being sold to the public by labeling them as "health reforms." The role of epidemiologists in this situation is to strengthen opposition to these anti-health reforms by documenting their effects on preventive and therapeutic health services and on the health status of the population. Major difficulties in this regard are discussed. There is a great need for epidemiologists to move boldly forward to attack the major diseases that afflict the Americas today. Two examples of high-priority programs are discussed: the achievement of safe water supplies by newly developed, low-cost community-based initiatives, and the long over-due organization of effective campaigns against cardiovascular disease. The establishment of specific, concrete Health Objectives at all levels of government--national, state/provincial, and local--must become the central focus of public health policy and action throughout the Americas. Epidemiologists are urged to take leadership in advocating and achieving this fundamentally epidemiologic approach.

Cardiovascular Diseases↗
PubMed1998

C.-E. A. Winslow: scientist, activist, and theoretician of the American public health movement throughout the first half of the twentieth century.

C.-E. A. Winslow was the leading theoretician of the American public health movement during the entire first half of the twentieth century. An eminent bacteriologist, he subsequently made outstanding scientific contributions to occupational health and to the hygiene of housing. As activist, theoretician and historian, he played an important role in environmental health, epidemiology and disease prevention, public health administrative practice, health education, public health nursing, mental health, medical care, and the improvement of living standards. When he died in 1957, the American Journal of Public Health commented that "For a long half century Professor Winslow could be found always at the thick of the struggle for the people's health. In whatever area new gains appeared possible of achievement, there he would be--planning, inspiring, leading, or digging in to hold the advance."

History, 20th Century↗
PubMed1998

Violence in a violent society.

The descriptive epidemiology of violence in the United States is presented. The reasons for the high homicide rates are explored by describing the historical development of violence in Colombia, a developing country with very high homicide rates, and in the United States, which has extraordinarily high homicide rates in comparison with other highly industrialized countries. The historical factors in the United States that contribute to the high violence rates include the genocide of the Indian population, the slave system, and the increasing militarization of the country's economy, ideology, and governmental policy. It is clear that "the United States is a high-violence environment," that it is indeed a violent society.

Cause of Death↗
PubMed1996

The development and prevention of cardiovascular disease risk factors: socioenvironmental influences.

In Third World countries, coronary heart disease is more frequent in the upper classes. In industrial countries such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, there has been a widening social class difference in the opposite direction. Yet the social class differences have been largely ignored in the development of public health programs to prevent cardiovascular disease. This paper presents specific recommendations to correct this glaring defect, including giving priority to the reduction of risk factor prevalence among low-income blue collar and white collar workers; strengthening regulatory, taxation and other measures that directly impact all classes of the population; reversing the declining living standards of large segments of the U.S. population which result from current economic and political policy; and greatly expanding the resources available for public health programs from their grossly inadequate level.

Aged↗
PubMed1994

Determinants of health: a progressive political platform.

This paper is based on the statement in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion that "The fundamental conditions and resources for health are peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice and equity. Improvement in health requires a secure foundation in these basic prerequisites." It attempts to formulate a progressive political platform for a number of these prerequisites, offering a series of recommendations regarding education, employment, income, and housing, and urging that the proposed programs be funded by progressive taxation and major reductions in the military budget.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Toward a new, "independent-cooperative model" of international health.

This article comments on the spirited North-South debate on international health which took place in Quebec, Canada in March 1991. This debate focused on a comprehensive critique of the current "classical" approach to international health adhered to by the central industrial countries, and vigorous affirmation of the need for a new, "independent-cooperative model" of international health. Emphasis is placed on the need for new leadership to transform international health from a field of dominance and dependence to one of independence and cooperation.

Global Health↗
PubMed1993

The Society for Epidemiologic Research and the future of epidemiology.

This paper describes the development of noninfectious disease epidemiology and the subsequent organization of the Society for Epidemiologic Research. It defines epidemiology as "the study of the health of human populations," and outlines its four basic functions. Certain negative trends in epidemiologic research are indicated. The current tasks of epidemiology are reviewed, as well as the objective and subjective factors which will determine the future of epidemiology.

Epidemiology↗
PubMed1992

Concepts of health promotion: dualities in public health theory.

The differing concepts of health promotion are reviewed in their historical context and development, and a unified concept is proposed which encompasses general as well as specific causative factors in the social environment. The implications for health promotion strategies are discussed.

Canada↗
PubMed1992

Budget cutting and privatization: the threat to health.

The worldwide drive for budget cutting and privatization, led by the WorldBank and the International Monetary Fund, has led to serious deterioration of health services as well as education, housing, nutrition and other social services in many countries. The model for this policy is the United States, which represents the pinnacle of private enterprise in the health field. The U.S. experience with this model--its effects on preventive and treatment services and health status--is reviewed. The example of the current drive toward privatization in Spain is discussed, and alternative recommendations are made to protect and improve the health of the Spanish public.

Budgets↗
PubMed1992

Healthy lifestyles: the perspective of epidemiology.

The epidemiologic basis for emphasis on healthy lifestyles as an important aspect of prevention is presented. Experience in changing lifestyles in the United States is reviewed in terms of health education, regulation, taxation, and resources. The need to shift priorities from planning for medical care to epidemiologically oriented health planning is discussed in terms of the relative impact of preventive versus treatment services in improving the health of the population.

Accident Prevention↗
PubMed1991

The health situation in the Americas.

This paper considers the elements that determine the health situation in any country: the specific hazards to health, the health services, and the general determinants which influence both the hazards and the services. The expectation of life--the best single measure of the health situation--is presented for each country of the Americas as representing the resultant of these determinants. The changing pattern of disease in the Americas--the emergence of noninfectious diseases as the major problems--is documented, and the need for epidemiologically oriented health planning is stressed. Data are presented to indicate that medical care is the least significant of the basic triad of public health, and that primary attention must be paid to both disease prevention and living standards.

Americas↗
PubMed1991

Global budgeting and the control of hospital costs.

This paper attempts to answer the question: Would global budgeting control hospital costs in the United States? It reviews the development of health insurance and the growth of specialization in the United States, as well as the experience of Canada in attempting to control costs in a fee-for-service national medical care program. It concludes that the main causes of cost escalation in the U.S. are fee-for-service and overspecialization, and urges adoption of the NAPHP proposal for payment of physicians in a national program, i.e. global budgeting for the entire package of ambulatory and institutional services. It also presents a nine-point program for immediate State action to lower costs.

Canada↗