In the eight years since an IOM ad hoc committee deliberated to produce the report, The U.S. Commitment to Global Health, the factors that should shape the U.S. global health agenda have continued to evolve. Reflective of this and of the opportunity presented by a new Presidential administration, the IOM will convene an ad hoc committee to re-assess and update the public and private sector roles in contributing to and deriving benefit from improved global health in its broadest sense, i.e., health beyond healthcare).
The U.S. Commitment to Global Health and its predecessor, the 1997 IOM study entitled America's Vital Interest in Global Health, both influenced public and private funding and the shaping of priorities for global health. While these reports had impact, some of their recommendations are yet to be fulfilled.

The IOM committee will begin its task by reviewing where the two prior reports resulted in more effective investments in global health initiatives and where recommendations were not taken up. It will then assess the current global health landscape and how it has evolved over the last eight years.
After reviewing these issues, the committee will offer conclusions and recommendations to guide the next Administration, as well as other funders and global health actors in setting future priorities and mobilizing resources. The committee will also review U.S. governmental external leadership and internal coordination of the global health enterprise and offer recommendations on how to improve responsiveness and efficiency. The audience for this report will include the private sector (in the U.S., other industrialized countries, and developing countries), the U.S. and foreign governments, and international organizations. Beyond demographic trends, the committee will consider relevant global changes over this period to include:
1) Increased forces for globalization that foster the movement of people (including health care workers), microbes, food, and pharmaceuticals and which increase our interdependency with other countries;

2) Aspects of globalization that increase the opportunities and challenges associated with greater global engagement in medical research and development;

3) The 2015 culmination of the timeframe for the Millennium Development Goals and the initiation of the era of the Sustainable Development Goals;

4) The commitments to an AIDS-free generation and to quality Universal Health Care;

5) The increasing privatization of health care delivery in many parts of the world;

6) Achieved and likely advances in technology and health systems design that could improve the potential for disease prevention, recognition, response, and eradication;

7) Technological advances that could raise the potential for naturally occurring and manmade biological agents to accidently or intentionally spread beyond national borders;
8) The growing frequency of large infectious disease epidemics that have spread globally affecting health and family welfare, trade, migration, and security;
9) The growing global epidemic of anti-microbial drug resistance and the lack of a commensurate response;
10) The increasing relative importance of injury and chronic non-communicable diseases (e.g. heart disease, diabetes, mental illness) in the developing world; and

11) The unfinished neglected tropical disease agenda.