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Science 31 August 2001:
Vol. 293. no. 5535, pp. 1595 - 1596
DOI: 10.1126/science.1059029
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Policy Forum

GLOBAL HEALTH:
WHO Ranking of Health System Performance

Dean T. Jamison* and Martin E. Sandbu

In its World Health Report 2000 (WHR2000), the World Health Organization published a ranking of its measures of health system performance of its 191 member states. WHO's performance measurement initiative both stimulated and contributed to debate on an important and neglected topic. This policy forum argues, however, that the WHO algorithm has serious shortcomings in that it neglects potential variables (such as geography) that can affect a country's performance.

D. T. Jamison is with the Program on Global Health and Education, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. M. E. Sandbu is in the Center for International Development, The Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: djamison{at}isop.ucla.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
COYNE AND HILSENRATH RESPOND.
J. S. Coyne and P. Hilsenrath (2002)
Am J Public Health 92, 1055
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)