In this regular feature on Breakthroughs, we highlight some of the most interesting reads in global health research from the past week.

From her front-line work with Médecins Sans Frontières, Joanne Liu saw firsthand how a security-obsessed agenda can erode our common humanity

A wave of new breakthrough tech could detect the disease years – even decades – before major symptoms strike

Newly established commission identifies 17 catastrophic threats to human health but says ‘realistic route to act’ on each exists

Preventable vision loss is a disproportionate global burden affecting low- and middle-income countries [1]. While contemporary frameworks highlight the pivotal role of sustained, capacity-building partnerships to address these inequities, current institutional offerings often fall short of this model [2]. Notably, prospective trainees seeking global health tracks may face limited publicly available information on structured opportunities across North America. Herein, we aimed to evaluate the documented global health training across accredited Canadian and US ophthalmology residency programs. We hypothesised that global health infrastructure remains limited and inequitably distributed. This cross-sectional study was conducted in accordance with Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines. A public web search across 140 accredited North American ophthalmology residency programs (15 Canadian, 125 US) was conducted in September 2025 using the search term “[institution name] ophthalmology residency program.” To evaluate offerings, five binary global health features were selected, including electives, outreach missions, formal tracks, didactic curricula, and international partnerships [3]. These features were also combined into a Global Health Engagement Composite (GHEC; 0–5) for exploratory analysis...

A Lancet Commission will unveil a DALY-based framework to compare long-range health threats — from pandemics and climate to AI misuse and antimicrobial resistance.

A global treaty signed by 197 countries — including Russia — requires reporting any death that could be a sign of an outbreak to come.

A global treaty signed by 197 countries — including Russia — requires reporting any death that could be a sign of an outbreak to come.