Global Healthcare: Advances and Challenges

Recent scientific and technological developments and innovations have significantly improved the quality of life and saved lives in the developed world. But, these developments are not introduced to the developing and underdeveloped countries. We still face unprecedented healthcare challenges in the 21st century. The prevalence of major diseases today, from the global AIDS pandemic to antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, cuts across the healthcare, political, economic, social, and biomedical disciplines: These diseases will continue affecting the world unless major measures are taken to develop comprehensive prevention and treatment programs. Thus, engineers and scientists are expected to play a critical role in developing novel and affordable healthcare technology and medications to solve global healthcare problems, especially in the developing and underdevelop countries. The objectives of this special issue are to discuss the global healthcare systems, financing, delivery and management. We also focus on the recent technological advances in healthcare and their use in diagnosing, treating, and preventing diseases, using novel technologies to develop new drugs, technology regulation, and ethical issues surrounding the use of novel technologies. © 1963-2012 IEEE.