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Welcome to the March 2013 edition of Highlights, the Milbank Memorial Fund's update service. The Milbank Memorial Fund is an endowed operating foundation that works to improve health by helping decision makers in the public and private sectors acquire and use the best available evidence to inform policy for health care and population health. The Fund has engaged in nonpartisan analysis, study, research, and communication on significant issues in health policy since its inception in 1905. Its staff organizes and participates in meetings with decision makers and publishes reports, books, and The Milbank Quarterly, a peer-reviewed journal of population health and health policy.

Periodically, we will send you information about publications of the Fund. These messages will include links to the Milbank Memorial Fund web pages so that you can access, with no charge, electronic editions of selected Fund publications and request copies of available print editions of Fund reports. For a complete list of Fund reports or to request copies of print editions (available on a limited basis without charge for individual or educational use), please visit our homepage, www.milbank.org, or contact us by telephone at 212-355-8400.

CURRENT ISSUE OF THE MILBANK QUARTERLY

In This Issue by Bradford H. Gray: This issue of The Milbank Quarterly begins and ends with a focus on disparities in health and health care, a topic of great concern in health policy and research in many countries. The first article, "Summarizing Social Disparities in Health," by Yukiko Asada, Yoko Yoshida, and Alyce Whipp, describes how disparities associated with multiple attributes such as income, education, sex, and race/ethnicity can be reported. Applying a graphical method developed by statistician Joseph Gastwirth (2007), they present data from the 2009 American Community Survey to show the relative contributions of these variables to the overall health disparity profiles of the U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The health measure they use is functional limitations, but the method can be applied to other health status measures as well.

LATEST MILBANK REPORT

Health Worker Shortages and Global Justice by Paula O'Brien and Lawrence O. Gostin: The world is experiencing a critical and growing shortage of health workers needed to deliver essential health services, particularly in the poorest countries around the globe. Health Worker Shortages and Global Justice by Paula O'Brien and Lawrence O. Gostin details the scope of the shortage, examines its complex underlying causes within and across borders, and offers seven recommendations to the United States for using its leadership status to address the problem, while stressing the need for all countries and stakeholders to take action. These recommendations take into account and carefully balance the rights, interests, and obligations of individuals, communities, and governments alike.

RECENT BOOK FROM THE CALIFORNIA/MILBANK BOOKS ON HEALTH AND THE PUBLIC

Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, With a New Epilogue by Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner: Deceit and Denial details the attempts by the chemical and lead industries to deceive Americans about the dangers that their deadly products present to workers, the public, and consumers. Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner pursued evidence steadily and relentlessly, interviewed the important players, investigated untapped sources, and uncovered a bruising story of cynical and cruel disregard for health and human rights. This resulting exposé is full of startling revelations, provocative arguments, and disturbing conclusions—all based on remarkable research and information gleaned from secret industry documents.

ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO THE MILBANK QUARTERLY

Beginning with the 1997 volume (number 75), The Milbank Quarterly is available via Wiley-Blackwell. Subscribing institutions and individuals can now search across all available full-text articles for words or phrases to find information; in addition, they can link directly from references, authors, and keywords to databases such as MEDLINE, ISI, and CrossRef and to cited articles in other journals. Those registered on Wiley Online Library can also sign up for electronic tables of contents to the Quarterly and other related journals and access online sample issues for all Wiley-Blackwell journals. Subscribers to the Quarterly will receive an access token and instructions on how to register on Wiley Online Library and activate their online subscription from Wiley-Blackwell. Single article purchases are also available to nonsubscribers. In case of difficulty, or if you have any questions about The Milbank Quarterly online, contact Journal Customer Services. AcademyHealth members will receive information from the Academy about how to access the journal directly from the Academy website. The journal is also available to libraries via Ovid, a fully searchable, cross-referenced database. (Call 1-800-950-2035 for full details, including rates.) In addition, all articles published between 1997 and the most recent one-year period are available free of charge to all on PubMed Central of the National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine. All articles from The Milbank Quarterly published between 1923 and the most recent two-year period are available for no charge through libraries and institutions that subscribe to JSTOR's Arts & Sciences IV Collection; single article purchases are also available to nonsubscribers.

An increasing number of recipients of Highlights are not affiliated with academic institutions, nor are they individual subscribers. If you would like to have access to the electronic version of the Quarterly, note that many university libraries are happy to offer privileges to persons in their communities, especially those in government positions.