Broken Markets and Broken Patients: Tuberculosis in India
Speaker: Madhukar Pai, MD, Ph.D., Associate Professor, McGill University; Associate Director, McGill University Tuberculosis Centre.
Despite the scale-up of DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Shortcourse), India continues to have the world’s highest burden of tuberculosis (TB). Severe forms of drug-resistant TB and high TB mortality are ominous signs of an epidemic that is far from controlled. Most TB patients seek care in the unregulated private sector where quality of care is highly variable; suboptimal diagnostics and irrational drug prescriptions are common. Both the private and public sector markets for TB have major shortcomings. This speech provided an overview of these larger market issues, and focused on one business model innovation to improve the private diagnostics market.