DHAKA: Producing healthier foods, adopting a whole government rather than single ministry approach and the use of data were among the key points to emerge from a summit on how to improve universal health coverage.

Health ministers, or their representatives, from 16 countries exchange ideas at the two-day Ministerial Meeting of Universal Health Coverage, held at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, which ended on Wednesday.

Dr Janette Garin, the Acting Secretary for Health in the Philippines, said that without the backing of data, countries are pouring money into programmes ‘blindly’.

South Korea spent two years processing data on a million patients, but now it has Dr Jung Kee Taig, president of the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, who said it can target lifestyle diseases like obesity and diabetes, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1815 HRS, FEB 11, 2015