Press Release

New Plan Saves Lives and Money with Better Global Health Care

While you read this page, 50 young children will lose their lives and 2 women will die in childbirth—nearly all in developing countries. For...

While you read this page, 50 young children will lose their lives and 2 women will die in childbirth—nearly all in developing countries. For millions of people life and death can come down to the “final mile”—the short distance between illness and care—that’s often blocked by poverty, geography, instability and conflict.

In Pharmacy on a Bicycle, authors Eric Bing and Marc Epstein take a bold, yet practical approach to bridging that “final mile.” You’ve heard about top-down health care but Pharmacy on a Bicycle introduces a new kind of bottom-up health care delivered at the source—microclinics, micropharmacies, and microentrepreneurs. Pharmacy on a Bicycle introduces a unique model for better global medicine: It saves more lives at a fraction of the cost of top-down bureaucratic programs.

Pharmacy on a Bicycle tackles the world’s biggest health challenges:

  • Each day more than 1500 children die after drinking contaminated water because their mothers don’t know about or can’t get inexpensive chlorine tablets.
  • A chemically-treated mosquito net costs less than $1.50 and greatly reduces the chances of getting malaria—but that cost is a stretch for 2.5 billion people who live on $2 a day or less.
  • Daily aspirin can reduce the chance of having a heart attack or stroke for some of the 13 million people who die of them each year. A few drops of vinegar can help detect cancer.  Both could be used more effectively in developing countries to ward off illness.
  • Many of the 250 million visually-impaired people in developing countries could perform better at school and work and lead more productive lives with simple eyeglasses that cost only a few dollars. 

Pharmacy on a Bicycle authors Eric G. Bing and Marc Epstein come at the global health care crisis from two very different backgrounds—Marc is a business school professor, Eric is a physician with an MBA who heads the Bush Institute’s global health initiative and serves as a global health professor at Southern Methodist University. Their training in health and business is a powerful combination in the fight against the world’s biggest global health challenges.

Co-published by the Bush Institute and Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Pharmacy on a Bicycle brings life-saving innovation to health care and supports the institute’s global health initiative which is built on the belief that every life is precious. The Bush Institute is proud to sponsor this work, with an ultimate goal to save lives in the developing world and create more effective and efficient health care for all.

In Pharmacy on a Bicycle Bing and Epstein show how engaging both public and private sectors creates innovation that benefits everyone—from AIDS patients who need streamlined, effective medication to children who struggle to find clean drinking water. Its principles are so effective that innovations overseas are helping bring better health care back to the United States.  

To schedule an interview with Eric G. Bing, please email Kathleen Sweetapple at [email protected].

For more information about the George W. Bush Institute, please visit us at Bushcenter.org.