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    What the Global South could teach rich countries about health care — if they'd listen

    In his book Decolonizing Healthcare Innovation, Dr. Matthew Harris argues wealthy countries ought to pay attention to innovative programs around the world instead of believing that "the West is best."
    by Kamala Thiagarajan Nov 13, 2023 7 minutes
    Dr. Matthew Harris visits the primary health-care center where he worked in Brazil 20 years ago. The author of <em>Decolonizing Healthcare Innovation: Low-Cost Solutions from Low-Income Countries</em> says: "I really think that if people had been more receptive to learning from Brazil 20 years ago, we could have had an army of community health workers in [the U.K.] by now."

    When Dr. Matthew Harris returned to the United Kingdom in 2003 after a four-year stint in Brazil, he remembers being fired up with ideas—only to encounter what he describes as a "wall of prejudice."

    He had moved to Brazil in 1999 after finishing medical school in London and working in the U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS) for a year. There he had to start over and re-train to be certified as a doctor in Brazil, passing proficiency exams in Portuguese through the University of Sao Paolo.

    On his return to the U.K., he was convinced his home country could learn so much from the Brazilian health system, if only they were prepared to listen.

    They were not. So, he came to understand how researchers and clinicians from the Global South must feel when they go unheard because of the many prejudices that still grip global health.

    Harris's new book, , delves into what these biases mean for the future of medicine. Harris, now a public health researcher at Imperial College London, spoke to NPR about his book via video call. The interview has been edited for

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