What is a comprehensive global health strategy? Bill Frist, US Senate majority leader from 2003 to 2007 and member of the Millennium Challenge Corporation's board of directors expressed his clear vision for holistic solutions to fight world poverty in the Boston Globe (a big task). Frist frames his argument by cautioning on the interpretation of indicators: benchmarks such as HIV/AIDS patients treated or bed nets distributed are hard measurements but in no way sufficient to evaluating the impact of global health programs. Frist writes:

This new thinking - led by a strong example and commitment from the United States - should look at global health investments as interconnected parts of a complex system of care. While the 25.3 million Africans infected with HIV/AIDS certainly need treatment now, they also need an integrated approach to their illness that ensures they have passable roads to reach clinics for care and access to clean water so they do not contract other diseases to complicate their already-compromised health. Treating people can only do so much if they risk death on unsafe roads or cannot sell their goods to support their families.

This translates to building in-country capacities, training more health care professionals who choose to stay in their countries, fighting corruption to ensure that money makes its way into the healthcare sector, evaluating immunization rates, examining total public expenditure on health, and other alternative approaches to traditional global health policies and measures. Frist makes a good argument for the value of good policies that will ultimately lead to sustainable results and target global poverty most effectively.