RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The value proposition of the Global Health Security Index
JF BMJ Global Health
JO BMJ Global Health
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP e003648
DO 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003648
VO 5
IS 10
A1 Sanjana J Ravi
A1 Kelsey Lane Warmbrod
A1 Lucia Mullen
A1 Diane Meyer
A1 Elizabeth Cameron
A1 Jessica Bell
A1 Priya Bapat
A1 Michael Paterra
A1 Catherine Machalaba
A1 Indira Nath
A1 Lawrence O Gostin
A1 Wilmot James
A1 Dylan George
A1 Simo Nikkari
A1 Ernesto Gozzer
A1 Oyewale Tomori
A1 Issa Makumbi
A1 Jennifer B Nuzzo
YR 2020
UL http://gh.bmj.com/content/5/10/e003648.abstract
AB Infectious disease outbreaks pose major threats to human health and security. Countries with robust capacities for preventing, detecting and responding to outbreaks can avert many of the social, political, economic and health system costs of such crises. The Global Health Security Index (GHS Index)—the first comprehensive assessment and benchmarking of health security and related capabilities across 195 countries—recently found that no country is sufficiently prepared for epidemics or pandemics. The GHS Index can help health security stakeholders identify areas of weakness, as well as opportunities to collaborate across sectors, collectively strengthen health systems and achieve shared public health goals. Some scholars have recently offered constructive critiques of the GHS Index’s approach to scoring and ranking countries; its weighting of select indicators; its emphasis on transparency; its focus on biosecurity and biosafety capacities; and divergence between select country scores and corresponding COVID-19-associated caseloads, morbidity, and mortality. Here, we (1) describe the practical value of the GHS Index; (2) present potential use cases to help policymakers and practitioners maximise the utility of the tool; (3) discuss the importance of scoring and ranking; (4) describe the robust methodology underpinning country scores and ranks; (5) highlight the GHS Index’s emphasis on transparency and (6) articulate caveats for users wishing to use GHS Index data in health security research, policymaking and practice.