Global health: the twenty-first century global health priority agenda.

Growth in global health interest in the past 20 years has been overwhelming and many universities throughout the world have created departments or institutes of global health. The essence of global health has to be promoting health equity globally. The global health agenda must embrace design of mixed health systems, involving both private and public components to address the emerging threat of noncommunicable diseases and existing communicable diseases as well as to reduce health inequity. The priority agenda for the twenty-first century is challenging but the improvements of the past give hope that the barriers to improving global health are surmountable.