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In February 2024, the National Academies Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education co-hosted a public workshop with Penn Dental Medicine to explore value proposition for oral health promotion and disease prevention. Experts from around the globe representing multiple sectors, discussed the value of holistic oral health, particularly for those with disabilities, and the importance of interprofessional education and collaborative practices aimed at whole-person oral health care.

Infant formula is a primary or supplementary source of nutrition for many infants in the U.S. Consequently, disruptions to the supply of infant formula can have a severe impact on infants'health and well-being. In late 2021 and early 2022, a recall of specific infant formula products, followed by a pause in production, resulted in a widespread, national shortage. The incident demonstrated that additional risk management planning is needed to protect infants from the consequences of potential future supply chain disruptions. In 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration contracted with the National Academies to convene an expert committee to examine and report on challenges in supply, market competition, and regulation of infant formula. The resulting consensus study report explains policy and marketplace vulnerabilities that were exposed during the shortage, describes the extent to which actions taken by relevant stakeholders addressed these vulnerabilities, identifies remaining gaps in the system, and recommends actions to reduce the risk and lessen the effect of any future disruption to the infant formula supply chain.

Globalization is rapidly changing lives and industries around the world. Drug development, authorization, and regulatory supervision have become international endeavors, with most medicines becoming global commodities. Drug companies utilize global supply chains that often include facilities in countries with inconsistent regulations from those of the United States, perform pivotal trials in multiple countries to support registration submissions in various jurisdictions, and subsequently market their medicines throughout most of the world. These companies operate across borders and require individual national regulators to ensure that drugs authorized for use in their countries are safe and effective, and appropriate for their health care system and their population. This process involves significant resources and often duplicative work. It is important to consider how this process can be improved in order to better allocate resources, time, and efforts to improve public health. Regulating Medicines in a Globalized World: The Need for Increased Reliance Among Regulators considers the role of mutual recognition and other reliance activities among regulators in contributing to enhancing public health. This report identifies opportunities for leveraging reliance activities more broadly in order to potentially impact public health globally. Key topics in this report include the job of medicines regulators in today's world, what policy makers need to know about today's regulatory environment, stakeholder views of recognition and reliance, as well as removing impediments and facilitating action for greater recognition and reliance among regulatory authorities.

Millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from mental, neurological, and substance use (MNS) disorders, and most do not have the resources to obtain treatment. The Uganda National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine hosted a workshop to discuss the state of care for MNS disorders in sub-Saharan Africa.

Healers Abroad:Americans Responding to the Human Resource Crisis in HIV/AIDS calls for the federal government to create and fund the United States Global Health Service (GHS) to mobilize the nation's best health care professionals and other highly skilled experts to help combat HIV/AIDS in hard-hit African, Caribbean, and Southeast Asian countries. The dearth of qualified health care workers in many lowincome nations is often the biggest roadblock to mounting effective responses to public health needs. The proposal's goal is to build the capacity of targeted countries to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic over the long run. The GHS would be comprised of six multifaceted components. Full-time, salaried professionals would make up the organization's pivotal'service corps,'working side-by-side with other colleagues already on the ground to provide medical care and drug therapy to affected populations while offering local counterparts training and assistance in clinical, technical, and managerial areas.