As US hospital markets become increasingly consolidated, empirical evidence is needed on the clinical and financial impacts of mergers on care provided by rural hospitals. We identified characteristics of rural hospitals that underwent mergers or acquisitions and examined changes in profitability, clinical outcomes, and patient experience at acquired versus non-acquired rural hospitals.

The Global Plan to Stop TB estimates funding required in low- and middle-income countries to achieve TB control targets set by the Stop TB Partnership within the context of the Millennium Development Goals. We estimate the contribution and impact of Global Fund investments under various scenarios of allocations across interventions and regions.

We performed a systematic review to assess the effect of integrated perinatal prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV interventions compared to non- or partially integrated services on the uptake in low- and middle-income countries.

Low cost, effective interventions are needed to deal with the major global burden of HIV/AIDS. Telephone consultation offers the potential to improve health of people living with HIV/AIDS cost-effectively and to reduce the burden on affected people and health systems. The aim of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of telephone consultation for HIV/AIDS care.

In the second paper in a three-part series on health systems guidance, John Lavis and colleagues explore the challenge of linking guidance development and policy development at global and national levels.

In the first paper in a three-part series on health systems guidance, Xavier Bosch-Capblanch and colleagues examine how guidance is currently formulated in low- and middle-income countries, and the challenges to developing such guidance.

In 2010, the Global Fund provided more than 75% of external international financing for malaria control. The Global Fund uses performance based funding in the grants it finances. This paper analyses the indicators used to measure the performance of Global Fund supported malaria grants in Asia.