Doctors of the World Has Changed Their Name

Two weeks ago, Doctors of the World sent me a press release, telling me they had changed their name. I tend to be slow in reviewing this kind of stuff. I get a lot of it, and most of it is badly targeted. (Sorry PR people, but I am not going to write about US healthcare consumers, medical tourism, or new herbal cures.) And even when it's well targeted, I never really knwow hat to do with the information. Am I supposed to just run the whole press release as a blog post?

Anyway, personal blogging issues aside, I got this press release from Doctors of the World that they are chaning their name. I'd normally say blah blah blah who really cares, to be honest. But, they're not changing their name to a trendy acronym or a made-up word. They're changing their name to HealthRight international. (Okay, technically HealthRight is a made-up name. But it's not Healthia or any tripe like that.)

That's an interesting name change, and one that I think represents a whole shift in global health thinking. They've gone from focusing on doctors and implicitly medical care, to a focus on health as a human right. That is exactly what global health thinking is doing, too. It's not about someone giving you medical care any more. It's about being able to exercise your right to health, and that inlcudes a whole lot of things besides physician-focused health care.

The last big NGO name change I can think of is when the Association for Voluntary Surgical Contraception changed their name to EngenderHealth. It mirrored a similar transition in the field; we stopped thinking about population growth and the technology to slow it, and we started thinking about reproductive health. Another revolutionary shift in though.

Two last notes. 1) Doctors of the World and I assume HealthRight pretty much always seems to be hiring. So if you're interested in jobs in global health, they are a reliable place to look. And 2) Now that i wrote about them, I feel obligated to print some of their press release. Here you go:

"HealthRight simply and powerfully reflects the principles on which we were founded: that health is a human right; and that health and human rights are inextricably linked," said HealthRight Executive Director Tom Dougherty.  "Our name and logo have changed, but our mission, priorities and programs remain focused on the same core values - creating lasting change that supports access to health while strengthening human rights."

HealthRight partners with local organizations, governments and health workers in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin American and the United States to build local capacity to provide sustainable health care and related education and support services.  By training and equipping local health workers and community members, and working together with non-governmental organizations and governments to create model programs, HealthRight strengthens health systems nationally and regionally.