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Health Check: 08/06/2009

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08/06/2009

BBC World Service - Health Check, 08/06/2009

Gates Foundation, lullabies help tiny babies and the Physicians for Human Rights Project.

The role of philanthropic donors in health policy worldwide.  Musical pain relief for tiny babies.  A group of volunteer doctors who cross each week into the West Bank to work in a mobile clinic.

The Gates Foundation - Money Well Spent?
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was set up as a philanthropic institution to 'bring innovations in health and learning to the global community.'  Last year the Gates foundation spent 1.22 billion US dollars for global health projects.

Dr David McCoy from University College London has written a paper for the Lancet journal.  He thinks the Foundation should be more transparent and accountable in its work.  He was joined in the Health Check studio by Philip Stevens from the think tank, the International Policy Network  and Theodore McDonald author of Removing the Barriers to Global Health Equality to discuss the role of philanthropic donors in health policy worldwide. 

Music and Newborn Babies
Everywhere in the world mothers naturally sing to their babies. But parents don’t usually think of singing to their babies when they are seriously ill in hospital. 

These days more and more infants are born prematurely and then they spend weeks or months in hospital, in intensive care. The babies are often very ill and need a lot of medical intervention to survive.  Babies are sometimes given pain killers to stop them becoming distressed during medical procedures, but recently researchers have found that music can be as effective. 

One study has shown that babies become calmer when they hear live singing compared with recorded music. Another found that the tiny patients coped better with difficult medical procedures when they could hear their mothers’ voice. 

The research into music and neo natal babies was reported in the British Medical Journal publication, Archives of diseases in Childhood, Foetal and Neonatal Edition

Physicians for Human Rights
The BBC's Matt Heywood reports on the work of Physicians for Human Rights.  Every Saturday a group of volunteer Israeli and Israeli-Arab doctors cross into the West Bank to work in a mobile clinic.

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