Global health. The current scenario and future perspectives

313 Epilogue The goal of this book is to update Global Health themes over the past 10 years, with a predominantly academic and Latin American perspective, in a current scenario dominated by the appearance of Covid-19 at the beginning of 2020. The conceptualization and relevance of Global Health have been enriched in our region especially thanks to the work of a group of prestigious Public Health schools and institutes, successful Latin American congresses, participation in global events and a set of publications with limited global impact written in Spanish. Universities in the Latin American region have carried out joined efforts with national and international organization and civil society organizations and made valuable contributions to increase knowledge, monitoring and evaluation due to pandemic and non-pandemic diseases. They also have involved communities directly. In this context, the field of Global Health has acquired its own identity and broad recognition. However, what has been achieved does not seem sufficient, given the different responses from countries to their internal health crises or the lack of collective response during the pandemic period, which makes it necessary, more than ever, to identify existing challenges and ways to address them. Currently and in the future, Global Health issues must be understood analytically within our new models for development. This understanding should encompass not only social, economic and cultural aspects but also innovation in Public Health itself. This implies profound structural changes across practically all dimensions of human activities. This means generating an understanding of diverse causes responsible for these problems globally, including health-related ones. Interdisciplinary approaches as well as inter- institutional collaboration at local, national and international levels constitute an imperative that needs to be strengthened. Undoubtedly academia has much to learn while processing such knowledge before transmitting it effectively among various stakeholders. Global Health gained even greater relevance with the emergence and development of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this scenario significant scientific advancements made in recent years have contributed to reducing the pandemic’s impact, and there is no doubt that we will witness new important achievements in this field in the future. Moreover, it has become evident that we were not prepared or responded too late, which should not happen again when facing potential threats of similar global impact. Likewise, timely and efficient decision-making will continue to be a domain requiring analysis and changes to facilitate effective and prompt actions. This implies, among other things, updating different types and