Cost, Capacity, And Care: History And Implementation Considerations Of The Who’S Essential Diagnostics List

Diagnostics are the gateway to healthcare, and major global health efforts such as the fight against HIV/AIDS dependent in large part on reliable and extensive diagnostic infrastructure. Despite this importance to global health, pathology and diagnostic medicine has been historically neglected amid significant global health initiatives. The May 2018 release of the WHO’s essential diagnostics list is, therefore, a turning point in the history of global health programming and may hold specifically strong implications for the recently observed resurgence of HIV/AIDS cases in sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe. In this paper, I analyze the relationships between the 2018 EDL and past global health programming and propose specific benefits of the EDL to low- and middle-income countries, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, when WHO-directed multi-government action helps to orient global health efforts. I also use existing literature concerning public health interventions in low- and middle-income countries to predict EDL impacts on four areas of need defined in recent pathology and laboratory medicine literature: human resources, education, infrastructure, and quality standards. Overall, I predict that the EDL will generate a more cohesive global health agenda toward pathology and laboratory medicine, and more evidence-based global health policies.