Morning Briefing

The "improvement and extension of health care in Africa is ... being constrained by gaps in financing," according to a new report (.pdf) by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) based on research commissioned by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a Belgian subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, the Financial Times' "beyondbrics" blog reports (Wheatley, 3/1). The report, titled "The Future of Healthcare in Africa," "discusses the continent's traditional health care issues, such as communicable diseases or financing health care in economically difficult circumstances" and "also addresses less well-known topics, such as the threat of obesity and heart disease, the use of mobile technology, development of more preventive care, and more," according to the Janssen website (3/1). The report "identif[ies] the key trends shaping African health care systems" and uses them "to develop [five] scenarios that depict the possible health landscape on the continent in 2022," a Janssen press release (.pdf) states (3/1).