On behalf of the National Institutes of Health and the Fogarty International Center, I am delighted to participate in the launch of these important contributions to global health. I first visited China in 1977 where I have enjoyed active and fruitful collaborations for more than 20 years. For me, personally and professionally, this is a deeply satisfying occasion.

These three books, the product of world-class researchers and experts in global health, offer all of us the opportunity to practice evidence-based decision-making at the national, regional, and local levels.

An invaluable contribution to the ultimate goal of improving worldwide well-being, the individual chapters will help shape the agenda for global health discussions and priority setting for years to come.

I commend the renowned group of authors led by Dr. Dean Jamison, whose expert observations and conclusions are vivid testimony to the ability of scientific inquiry and biomedical research to prolong life and reduce suffering.

As a researcher, I see these books not as the end of a process but as the springboard for a renewed effort to relieve the burden of disease worldwide. As Director of Fogarty, I see them as a guide to help us initiate as well as improve international partnerships and collaborations.

This milestone event reflects well the vision of global collaboration and partnership contained in the Roadmap Initiative of Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, Director of the National Institutes of Health. The goal of these books and the Roadmap is to translate ground-breaking research into improved health that reaches not only the low- and middle-income countries, but also the densely-populated cities and the isolated villages worldwide.

I am reminded of the words of Congressman John E. Fogarty, whose vision still guides our mission. As he noted nearly 50 years ago [Congressional Record, 1959]:

"The goal of better health has the capacity to demolish geographic and political boundaries and to enter the hearts and minds of men, women, and children in the four corners of the earth. It is an issue which serves as a forceful reminder of the oneness, the essential brotherhood of man.”

The John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences is the international component of the NIH. The center addresses global health challenges through innovative and collaborative research and training programs and supports and advances the NIH mission through international partnerships. For more information about Fogarty and its programs, visit www.fic.nih.gov.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.