GLOSSARY OF CONCEPTS

Global Health Equity

Impartiality in treatment, plus equality of opportunity for everyone to access healthcare, health education, and prevention services. Equity is not to be confused with concepts of justice since it does not imply judgment,  nor statements of morality

Health Inequities

Measurable differences in health outcomes (incidence of disease, obesity, child mortality, etc.) between different populations.

Public and Private Opinion

Public opinion refers to institutionalized, official positions offered by academics, governments, companies, etc. Private opinion refers to individuals and non-publicly disseminated positions.

Sustainable, Practical Knowledge

Knowledge that is visible and nurtured by communities which are empowered to make changes for themselves. Sustainability and practicality are qualities of evolving systems of economy, governance, education and healthcare. This is living knowledge held by all who are involved in community building. Applies especially to all capacity-building activities.

Interlinking Research, Advocacy and Capacity Building

The three core strategies are:

Research

Advocacy

Capacity Building

Activities are categorized by strategy. Each activity is grounded in its main strategy, but includes components of the other two strategies.  For example, research is part of every advocacy and capacity-building activity.

Strategies

Research, advocacy, and capacity building.

Activities

Projects and programs that are organized under the three core strategies.

Research

Deals with quantitative data, methodology and analysis.

Advocacy

Deals with communication, raising awareness, and education.

Capacity Building

Deals with community building, coaching, training, and technologies that facilitate all capacity-building projects.

Global Health Governance

An alternative to existing models of providing healthcare and health information to populations around the globe. See “Statement of Position” by the Foundation.

Disadvantaged Populations

Groups of people, regardless of size, who are connected via a situation that prevents them from receiving adequate healthcare, services and education. The situation is usually structural: groups may be marginalized because of their ethnicity, income level, education level, or perceived cultural values (or perceived lack).

Displaced Populations

Groups of people who have been forced to leave their home or homeland due to war, natural disaster, civil strife or other catastrophe.

Healthcare

Provision of medical care in a clinical setting.

Health Education

Information, and the dissemination of that information via structured programs. Structured programs make use of venues such as schools, homes, public media, public service announcements, magazines, websites, forums, etc.

Prevention Services

Services, programs and accessible information that offer ways for an individual to prevent disease, illness or the advancement of an illness. Services that allow individuals to stay informed about their health.

Impartiality in Treatment

Every person receives the same medical treatment no matter who they are or where they come from.

Grassroots Organizations

Locally based organizations, often non-profit, that work directly within communities on issues specific to them.

Determinants

Factors that have a direct or indirect effect on health outcomes for any given population: social, economic, geographic, environmental.

Dimension or Sphere

A non-hierarchical perspective that takes into account the different aspects of a person's existence: individual, regional, national. Used instead of "levels."

Global Health Community

Major institutions that track, measure and make recommendations for global health, including the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Development Programme, Global Health Council, etc. Used instead of “levels”.

Replicable and Adaptable Models:

• Platform
• Research
• Community Building

Any platform, research model or community-building model that can be applied in a variety of situations, with some modification to suit the needs of different communities and different contexts. Platform is technology-based. Research model defines the what, how and why of data research. Community-building model means building knowledge with one's own community members

Health Policies

Official legislation or guidelines  enforced at the local, regional or national levels by government or by other regulatory bodies.

Collaborative Partnerships

Most activities are co-developed with the support and collaboration of multiple entities outside the Foundation. Collaboration is a key model for developing activities and for attaining goals.

Contextual Solutions

The result of knowledge sharing and community building for the benefit of a specific community or population.

Displacement aXis

The original title for a single documentary film about displacement and how it affects those who are displaced, their neighbors and host populations. Displacement aXis now describes a collection of documentaries and multimedia projects that present and explore displacement as an urgent healthcare issue

Equity Gap Analysis

A project designed to produce a comprehensive methodology for capturing and analyzing data that illustrates and explains why there are gaps in health equity for different populations around the globe. This is the main research activity that is being led by several researchers based in the UK and the EU. It was originally proposed by Dr. Dora Kostadinova, an early supporter of the Foundation.

Access Health Library & Access Health Forums

A technology-based platform accessible via the web by any professional or individual interested in learning and advancing global health equity. Access Health Library is built on semantic search technology. Access Health Forums is built on the WikiProfessional platform co-developed by the Concept Web Alliance. Access Health Library connects users to information, including definitions of concepts, research papers, bibliographies, video and other multimedia, etc. Access Health Forums connects users with each other, providing the online toolset for creating and moderating discussions, updating concepts stored in Access Health Library and enabling discussion groups to form online communities with common interests.

For more information visit:

http://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/
or
http://www.nbic.nl/about-nbic/affiliated-organisations/cwa/introduction/

Semantic Search Concept Web

A new generation of searching for information based on recognizing concepts and their relationships to one another. This concept replaces the linear model of searching currently popularized by Google in which text is discovered in websites, documents and media across the web and search results are presented in non-hierarchical lists that must be parsed by the user.

Information “Silo”

A metaphor used to describe disconnected data stores that are not easily accessible or integrated for efficient data discovery.

Knowledge Management

A system for capturing, sharing and distributing knowledge.

Civil Society

A country or self-governing region that integrates democratic practices into the fabric of their everyday lives (such as open elections, fair taxation, health and education systems). This concept is often mentioned in position papers by groups like the World Health Organization (WHO).

Millennium Development Goals

A set of goals identified and defined by the United Nations Millennium Project in 2000. The Project aims to eliminate poverty and significantly improve health and environmental outcomes for disadvantaged populations around the globe by 2015.
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals

Developing Nations

Generally, nations with underperforming economies, undervalued currency, unstable democratic governments, lack of infrastructure and low standards of education and healthcare.