$14.5m Gates Foundation grant to help improve global healthcare

A $14.5m grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will help an Imperial group improve and expand healthcare access in developing countries. Under the leadership of Professor Kalipso Chalkidou, Professor of Practice in Global Health at Imperial, the Global Health and Development Group Group is a core partner of the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI), a global network of health policy makers, researchers, and development experts. The network provides expert advice to decision-makers in LMICs to support them make evidence-informed decisions about how much public money to spend on healthcare and how that money can be spent as effectively as possible. The iDSI works with policymakers and healthcare payers in low and middle-income countries, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, to understand and respond to challenges such as sustainable health insurance and access to quality healthcare. Critical decisions. iDSI Director Professor Chalkidou, who also directs the Global Health program at the Center for Global Development, said: "With government and aid budgets under pressure, many developing countries are facing declines in health funding and are going to have to make difficult choices. "Policymakers' decisions about what health care to make available and at what cost can be a life or death decision for people across the developing world.