“The Long Tail of Global Health Equity: Tackling the
Endemic Non-Communicable Diseases of the Bottom Billion”
March 2-3 2011
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Harvard Medical School
The 2011 Boston Conference program.
Noncommunicable diseases and injuries account for more than half of the disease burden among the world’s poorest billion people. There are highly effective ways to prevent and treat many of these diseases, but they do not receive the recognition and resources they deserve. The 2011 conference at Harvard Medical School was conceived to expand the global discourse on NCDs and injuries to encompass endemic conditions linked to the environmental, infectious, and additional risk factors that have disproportionately impacted the world’s poor.
A passionate community of practitioners works to study, prevent, treat, and palliate these conditions. At the conference, attendees highlighted specific diseases, developed a prevention agenda for NCDs and injuries among the very poor, and refined a strategic plan for strengthening clinical service delivery among the poorest communities and populations.
Boston Statement on NCDs of the Poorest Billion People
“We unanimously agree to take measures to prevent NCDs and improve the quality of life of people currently living with NCDs, particularly among the poorest billion.”
Signatories of the Boston Statement
As an outcome of the Harvard conference, attendees collaborated to produce the Boston Statement on NCDs of the Poorest Billion People. This document, written in advance of the 2011 United Nations General Assembly session on NCDs, affirmed the problem NCDs and injuries pose globally and the challenges specific to NCDs in the poorest billion. The statement called for governments and stakeholders to address NCD disease risks related to poverty, commit to strengthening health systems, and link communicable and noncommunicable diseases through integrated approaches for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and palliation.
Read the full text of the Boston Statement on NCDs of the Poorest Billion People (2011).
Conference materials
Organizers and Supporters
We acknowledge the partnership and thought leadership that made this event possible.
Sponsor:
- Medtronic Philanthropy
Organizing Committee:
- Gene Bukhman (conference director), Harvard Medical School, Partners In Health
- Felicia Knaul, Harvard Medical School, Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries (GTF.CCC)
- Agnes Binagwaho, Rwanda Ministry of Health
- Ann Keeling, NCD Alliance Steering Committee, International Diabetes Foundation (IDF)
- Elizabeth G. Nabel, Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
- Peter Hotez, Sabin Vaccine Institute, Baylor College of Medicine
- Fernet Leandre, Partners In Health Haiti, Zanmi Lasante
- Donna Barry, Partners In Health
- Paul Farmer, Harvard Medical School, Partners In Health
Hosting Institutions:
- Partners In Health
- Harvard Medical School, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine
- Brigham and Women’s Hospital
- Harvard School of Public Health
- Harvard Global Equity Initiative (HGEI)
- Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control (GTF.CCC)
- NCD Alliance