Julio Frenk

Julio Frenk
University of California, Los Angeles | UCLA

MD, MPH, PhD

About

378
Publications
218,523
Reads
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23,328
Citations
Additional affiliations
August 2015 - June 2024
University of Miami
Position
  • President
January 2009 - August 2015
Harvard University
Position
  • Dean of the Faculty
January 2007 - December 2009
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Position
  • Fellow

Publications

Publications (378)
Article
The world as a whole—with the important exception of sub-Saharan Africa—is rapidly approaching, for the first time in human history, an inversion of the population pyramid, with a narrow base and a wider top. Medical and public health advances have enabled life expectancy to increase, whereas couples in most countries are having fewer offspring. Se...
Article
2023 marks the 20-year anniversary of the creation of Mexico's System of Social Protection for Health and the Seguro Popular, a model for the global quest to achieve universal health coverage through health system reform. We analyse the success and challenges after 2012, the consequences of reform ageing, and the unique coincidence of systemic reor...
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Populist leaders have consistently rejected evidence-based policies in responding to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They acted later and with less intensity than non-populists in implementing public health measures such as physical distancing, lockdowns, and developing public health data sets. We describe the responses of ten large countries with p...
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This paper discusses the origins and content of the framework that guided the creation of the Center for Public Health Research in 1984 and the modernization of the School of Public of Health of Mexico, established in 1922. These two institutions eventually merged with the Center for Research in Infectious Disease to create, in 1987, the National I...
Article
The education of health professionals substantially changed before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2010 Lancet Commission examined the 100-year history of health-professional education, beginning with the 1910 Flexner report. Since the publication of the Lancet Commission, several transformative developments have happened, including in...
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We present a new concept, Punt Politics , and apply it to the COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) in two epicenters of the pandemic: Mexico and Brazil. Punt Politics refers to national leaders in federal systems deferring or deflecting responsibility for health systems decision-making to sub-national entities without evidence or coordin...
Article
The way a society protects and promotes human rights shapes public policies, determines the distribution of resources and access to services, and ultimately affects population health. Scholarship and action on human rights have been foundational to the public health field.
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The purpose of this paper is to discuss one of the most common ethical predicaments faced by public health practitioners: the distribution of limited resources for health. The question we address is the following: If there are limited resources to provide necessary health care, how can we reasonably establish priorities? We discuss this question us...
Article
This article reviews the current experience and the flaws encountered in the rush to deploy telemedicine as a substitute for in-person care in response to the raging coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic; the preceding fault lines in the U.S. health care system that exacerbated the problem; and the importance of emerging from this calamity with a clear v...
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En este ensayo se discute la situación de la atención a la salud en Mesoamérica antes e inmediatamente después de 1519. En los primeros 50 años después de la Conquista, los espa­ñoles hicieron un uso muy extensivo de la medicina náhuatl. Sin embargo, con el tiempo, el ámbito de influencia de esta tradición se vio limitado debido a la rápida imposic...
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A series of studies developed in Mexico in the late 1990s identified disturbing rates of catastrophic health expenditures as a result of the fact that approximately half of the Mexican population, 50 million people, lacked health insurance.¹ This analysis exposed a dreadful paradox: we know that health contributes to the reduction of poverty, yet m...
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En este artículo se describen la creación de los marcos legales y el origen, crecimiento y consolidación de las instituciones e intervenciones (iniciativas, programas, políticas) que han conformado la salud pública moderna en México. También se discuten los esfuerzos recientes por hacer universal la protección social en salud. Esta gesta, que duró...
Article
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Background We provide a historical analysis of the evolution of the field of health policy and systems research (HPSR) since 1996. In the mid-1990s, three main challenges affected HPSR, namely (1) fragmentation and lack of a single agreed definition of the field; (2) ongoing dominance of biomedical and clinical research; and (3) lack of demand for...
Chapter
Mexico achieved Millennium Development Goal 4, which set the target of reducing the 1990 child mortality rate by two‐thirds no later than 2015. Progress in this area has been the result of the combined implementation, over the past 25 years, of several efforts to strengthen the health system and various disease‐oriented strategies. This chapter des...
Article
We documented lessons learned in the initial design and development of the new Harvard doctor of public health (DrPH) degree, an innovative professional public health doctorate designed to provide advanced education in the field of public health. Using data from program documents, personal participation in the development and administration of the...
Article
This paper discusses the health challenges faced by countries in Latin America. These challenges have two dimensions: those related to the health needs of populations and those related to the way in which health systems are responding to these needs. The main conclusion is that in order to improve health conditions and move towards universal health...
Article
Mental and substance use disorders account for 18.9% of years lived with disability worldwide. A rising prevalence of mental disorders was identified in the past decade and a call for global attention to this challenge was made. The purpose of this paper is to discuss new strategies to address mental health problems in developing nations aimed at d...
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Since at least the 1990s, there has been growing recognition that societies need global public goods (GPGs) in order to protect and promote public health. While the term GPG is sometimes used loosely to denote that which is ‘good’ for the global public, we restrict our use of the term to its technical definition (goods that are non-excludable and n...
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Me emociona profundamente estar hoy aquí para celebrar con ustedes el trigésimo aniversario del Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública y el nonagésimo quinto aniversario de la Escuela de Salud Pública de México. Debemos sentirnos felices, pues hay muy buenas razones para celebrar. Varias de estas razones se exponen en el libro que me pidieron comentar...
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Lawrence Gostin and colleagues offer a set of priorities for global health preparedness and response for future infectious disease threats.
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In this essay we discuss the need to reestablish the balance between health enhancing activities and care for the sick in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century. We first briefly review the historical evolution of personal and public hygiene. We then discuss the increasing emphasis on curative care that has characterized the modern world....
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This chapter discusses the Mexican health system. We first describe the general characteristics of Mexico and the health conditions of the Mexican population, with emphasis in noncommunicable diseases, which are now the main cause of death and disability. The following section is devoted to the description of the basic structure of the system: its...
Article
This paper discusses the use of an explicit ethical and human rights framework to guide a reform intended to provide universal and comprehensive social protection in health for all Mexicans, independently of their socio-economic status or labor market condition. This reform was designed, implemented, and evaluated by making use of what Michael Reic...
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Prompted by the 20th anniversary of the 1993 World Development Report, a Lancet Commission revisited the case for investment in health and developed a new investment framework to achieve dramatic health gains by 2035. The Commission's report has four key messages, each accompanied by opportunities for action by national governments of low-income an...
Article
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Prompted by the 20th anniversary of the 1993 World Development Report, a Lancet Commission revisited the case for investment in health and developed a new investment framework to achieve dramatic health gains by 2035. The Commission's report has four key messages, each accompanied by opportunities for action by national governments of low-income an...
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En noviembre de 2014, la Secretaría de Salud de México fue sede de una mesa redonda con miembros de la Comisión de The Lancet para la Inversión en Salud (CIS) para analizar el informe de esta misma comisión titulado Salud global 2035 y sus posibles implicaciones para el mejoramiento de la salud pública...
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Health systems in low- and middle-income countries were designed to provide episodic care for acute conditions. However, the burden of disease has shifted to be overwhelmingly dominated by chronic conditions and illnesses that require health systems to function in an integrated manner across a spectrum of disease stages from prevention to palliatio...
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Por lo general, cuando se habla sobre tecnologías de la información suele hablarse sobre la tecnología en sí y su contenido. En este artículo quisiera enfocarme en las tecnologías móviles para la salud (salud móvil), pero no tanto en su contenido de la salud móvil sino en su contexto, representado por los sistemas de salud en donde estas tecnología...
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We have presented an analytic framework and 4 criteria for assessing when global health treaties have reasonable prospects of yielding net positive effects. First, there must be a significant transnational dimension to the problem being addressed. Second, the goals should justify the coercive nature of treaties. Third, proposed global health treati...
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Next week, the UN General Assembly will call on member states to bid farewell to the Millennium Dewvelopment Goals andadopt 17 new Sustainable Development Goals.
Article
If an international legal agreement is needed for any of today's global health challenges, it would be antibiotic resistance (ABR). This challenge is transnational, its solution justifies coercion, tangible benefits are likely to be achieved, and other commitment mechanisms have thus far not been successful. Since addressing ABR depends on near-uni...
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Usually when we talk about information technologies we are speaking about the technology itself and its contents. In this article I want to focus on mobile technologies for health (mobile health), but not so much on the content of mobile health but in its context, represented by the health systems where these technologies are deployed. The central...
Article
This Viewpoint reviews the inception of public health education and recalls then visionaries whose roles have slipped from common histories of the tale. The modern era of medical education in the United States is usually attributed to the report by Abraham Flexner, commonly known as the “Flexner Report” of 1910,¹ and the analogue role for public h...
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We are transforming the educational strategy at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health guided by 5 principles: (1) development of T-shaped competencies (breadth across fields, depth in primary fields), (2) flexible and modular design accommodating different needs through the lifecycle, (3) greater experiential learning, (4) 3 levels of educ...
Chapter
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Article
Policy innovations and lessons associated with the quest for universal health coverage in Latin America are the result of a complex epidemiological transition, an extended process of democratisation, and high economic growth in recent times that has facilitated additional investments in health. The goal of universal health coverage is part of a thi...
Conference Paper
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Substantial inequalities exist in cancer survival rates across countries. In addition to prevention of new cancers by reduction of risk factors, strategies are needed to close the gap between developed and developing countries in cancer survival and the eff ects of the disease on human suff ering. We challenge the public health community's assumpti...
Article
We discuss a set of ideas related to defining health - using the World Health Organization definition, several debates in the academic literature, and the Meikirch Model of Health. Given the complex and dynamic nature of health, we cannot aim to generate a once-and-for-all agreement on its precise meaning. Instead, let us work to develop a general...
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and colleagues argue that WHO's unique political legitimacy makes it essential to achieving international action on global health and call for governments to re-establish guaranteed core funding Devi Sridhar senior lecturer 1 2 , J Frenk dean 3 , L Gostin professor 4 , S Moon lecturer Over the past few years the World Health Organization (WHO) has...
Book
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Recommendations To strengthen domestic financing of national health systems, we conclude that: Every government should meet its primary responsibility for securing the health of its own people. This involves a responsibility to oversee domestic financing for health and ensure that it is sufficient, efficient, equitable and sustainable. Every gov...
Chapter
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The recent attention to health systems has reignited the debate on some of the dichotomies that have persisted for decades in the global health field: prevention versus treatment, primary versus specialized care, vertical versus horizontal strategies, and social determinants of health versus health services. This chapter provides a conceptual basis...
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Despite large gains in health over the past few decades, the distribution of health risks worldwide remains extremely and unacceptably uneven. Although the health sector has a crucial role in addressing health inequalities, its efforts often come into conflict with powerful global actors in pursuit of other interests such as protection of national...
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Although global health is a recommended content area for the future of education in public health, no standardized global health competency model existed for master-level public health students. Without such a competency model, academic institutions are challenged to ensure that students are able to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes...
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The moment is ripe to revisit the idea of global health. Despite tens of billions of dollars spent over the past decade under the auspices of global health, 1 a consensus defi nition for this term remains elusive. 2–5 Yet the way in which we understand global health critically shapes not only which and whose problems we tackle, but also the way in...
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Executive summary Prompted by the 20th anniversary of the 1993 World Development Report, a Lancet Commission revisited the case for investment in health and developed a new investment frame work to achieve dramatic health gains by 2035. Our report has four key messages, each accompanied by opportunities for action by national governments of low-inc...
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Global health is a varied field that comprises research, evaluation and policy that, by its definition, also occurs in disparate locations across the world. This forum article is introduced by our guest editor of the Medicine for Global Health article collection, Gretchen Birbeck. Here, experts based across different settings describe their persona...
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In this paper we discuss the recent efforts to modernize the School of Public Health of Mexico (ESPM). In the first part we analyze the conditions in which the ESPM operated at the beginning of the 1980s. In part two we describe the changes introduced in the ESPM between 1983 and 1986, up until its incorporation into the National Institute of Publi...