BMJ  2004;328:47 (3 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7430.47-a

Letter

Academic medicine: time for reinvention

Public health sciences need strengthening in developing countries

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Bhutta's editorial highlights well the poor state of health systems and public health, and subsequent poor population health, in developing countries.¹ The opportunity offered by BMJ's campaign to revive academic medicine,² or more inclusively academic health care, needs to be captured, debated, and built on, particularly in developing countries, where this problem is greatest.

The key to taking this debate further would be to bring to public health sciences in developing countries the rigour and respect that is necessary to improve health systems and the health of populations. In India, for example, substantial talent is increasingly being tapped internationally, and systems have not been developed there to optimally use this talent for long term societal development. Thus India has brilliant basic scientists and clinicians but a poorly developed public health research and teaching system that lacks originality and substance and prevents fundamental improvements in population health. Currently, . . . [Full text of this article]

Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad 500 082, India dandona@asci.org.in

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