The Quality of Medical Care in Low-Income Countries: From Providers to Markets

The excellent systematic review in this week’s PLoS Medicine by Paul Garner and colleagues focuses discussion on this critical issue. Their finding of poor quality in both the public and private sectors along different dimensions (competence is similar in both, but the private sector is more patient centered) brings much needed evidence to an ongoing debate. The review reflects a logical initial focus in the literature on individual providers rather than the interactions between providers; going forward, broadening the discussion on quality to health care markets can generate valuable insights for policy. URL:[http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000432].