10-Dec-14 The Mexican Health Ministry has taken an important step to ensure access to palliative care for people suffering from pain due to incurable illness, releasing long-awaited guidelines that will put into practice the provisions on end-of-life care outlined in the country’s 2009 health law. Seven of Mexico’s 32 states have no hospitals offering palliative care. [image: Human Rights Watch]

Latin America’s lack of fiscal discipline is likely to prevent public health from addressing adequately the additional costs of an aging population. That paves the way for massive private sector growth in fields such as telemedicine, healthcare IT, medical devices and medical technologies, that help personalise medicine or improve the efficiency of doctors and other healthcare professionals. [Image: Global Health Intelligence]

24-Oct-14 Tens of thousands of patients with terminal illnesses in Mexico suffer unnecessarily from severe pain and other symptoms, says Human Rights Watch. Although Mexico’s health law explicitly grants people a right to palliative care, the service is offered almost exclusively at large specialist hospitals. [image: Ed Kashi / VII Photo for Human Rights Watch]

14-Oct-14 Medical device companies will see growing opportunities in Latin America in the next five years as spending power increases, Jim Hogan, president of Medtronic Latin America has said. Opportunities lie not only in selling to these countries, but expanding infrastructure that allows wider access to healthcare. [image: South Florida Business Journal / Celia Ampel]