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June 2016

The World Health Organization is a key part of the international system for assessing and responding to emerging threats from infectious and other diseases, but there has been widespread criticism of the body following its role in the disappointing and dysfunctional response to the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Margaret Chan, who has led the agency for the past decade, steps down in 2017 and the search for her successor is underway. In an Editorial, the PLOS Medicine Editors discuss some of the challenges facing the organization and priorities for its reform, and reflect on the qualities which will be required in the next Director-General.

Image Credit: 41916075@N06, Flickr

Editorial

A Global Champion for Health—WHO’s Next?

The PLOS Medicine Editors

Essays

Delinking Investment in Antibiotic Research and Development from Sales Revenues: The Challenges of Transforming a Promising Idea into Reality

Kevin Outterson, Unni Gopinathan, Charles Clift, Anthony D. So, Chantal M. Morel, John-Arne Røttingen

Why Most Clinical Research Is Not Useful

John P. A. Ioannidis

Policy Forum

Direct-to-consumer Marketing to People with Hemophilia

Philip Kucab, Katelyn Dow Stepanyan, Adriane Fugh-Berman

Guidelines and Guidance

Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology—Nutritional Epidemiology (STROBE-nut): An Extension of the STROBE Statement

Carl Lachat, Dana Hawwash, Marga C. Ocké, Christina Berg, Elisabet Forsum, Agneta Hörnell, Christel Larsson, Emily Sonestedt, Elisabet Wirfält, Agneta Åkesson, Patrick Kolsteren, Graham Byrnes, Willem De Keyzer, John Van Camp, Janet E. Cade, Nadia Slimani, Myriam Cevallos, Matthias Egger, Inge Huybrechts

Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting: the GATHER statement

Gretchen A. Stevens, Leontine Alkema, Robert E. Black, J. Ties Boerma, Gary S. Collins, Majid Ezzati, John T. Grove, Daniel R. Hogan, Margaret C. Hogan, Richard Horton, Joy E. Lawn, Ana Marušić, Colin D. Mathers, Christopher J. L. Murray, Igor Rudan, Joshua A. Salomon, Paul J. Simpson, Theo Vos, Vivian Welch, The GATHER Working Group

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Research Articles

Impact Evaluation of a System-Wide Chronic Disease Management Program on Health Service Utilisation: A Propensity-Matched Cohort Study

Laurent Billot, Kate Corcoran, Alina McDonald, Gawaine Powell-Davies, Anne-Marie Feyer

Plant-Based Dietary Patterns and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in US Men and Women: Results from Three Prospective Cohort Studies

Ambika Satija, Shilpa N. Bhupathiraju, Eric B. Rimm, Donna Spiegelman, Stephanie E. Chiuve, Lea Borgi, Walter C. Willett, JoAnn E. Manson, Qi Sun, Frank B. Hu

Novel Three-Day, Community-Based, Nonpharmacological Group Intervention for Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain (COPERS): A Randomised Clinical Trial

Stephanie J. C. Taylor, Dawn Carnes, Kate Homer, Brennan C. Kahan, Natalia Hounsome, Sandra Eldridge, Anne Spencer, Tamar Pincus, Anisur Rahman, Martin Underwood

Geographical Inequalities and Social and Environmental Risk Factors for Under-Five Mortality in Ghana in 2000 and 2010: Bayesian Spatial Analysis of Census Data

Raphael E. Arku, James E. Bennett, Marcia C. Castro, Kofi Agyeman-Duah, Samilia E. Mintah, James H. Ware, Philomena Nyarko, John D. Spengler, Samuel Agyei-Mensah, Majid Ezzati

Prediction of Bladder Outcomes after Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

Chiara Pavese, Marc P. Schneider, Martin Schubert, Armin Curt, Giorgio Scivoletto, Enrico Finazzi-Agrò, Ulrich Mehnert, Doris Maier, Rainer Abel, Frank Röhrich, Norbert Weidner, Rüdiger Rupp, Alfons G. Kessels, Lucas M. Bachmann, Thomas M. Kessler

Investigating the Causal Relationship of C-Reactive Protein with 32 Complex Somatic and Psychiatric Outcomes: A Large-Scale Cross-Consortium Mendelian Randomization Study

Bram. P. Prins, Ali Abbasi, Anson Wong, Ahmad Vaez, Ilja Nolte, Nora Franceschini, Philip E. Stuart, Javier Guterriez Achury, Vanisha Mistry, Jonathan P. Bradfield, Ana M. Valdes, Jose Bras, Aleksey Shatunov, PAGE Consortium, International Stroke Genetics Consortium, Systemic Sclerosis consortium, Treat OA consortium, DIAGRAM Consortium, CARDIoGRAMplusC4D Consortium, ALS consortium, International Parkinson’s Disease Genomics Consortium, Autism Spectrum Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, CKDGen consortium, GERAD1 Consortium, International Consortium for Blood Pressure, Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, Inflammation Working Group of the CHARGE Consortium, Chen Lu, Buhm Han, Soumya Raychaudhuri, Steve Bevan, Maureen D. Mayes, Lam C. Tsoi, Evangelos Evangelou, Rajan P. Nair, Struan F. A. Grant, Constantin Polychronakos, Timothy R. D. Radstake, David A. van Heel, Melanie L. Dunstan, Nicholas W. Wood, Ammar Al-Chalabi, Abbas Dehghan, Hakon Hakonarson, Hugh S. Markus, James T. Elder, Jo Knight, Dan E. Arking, Timothy D. Spector, Bobby P. C. Koeleman, Cornelia M. van Duijn, Javier Martin, Andrew P. Morris, Rinse K. Weersma, Cisca Wijmenga, Patricia B. Munroe, John R. B. Perry, Jennie G. Pouget, Yalda Jamshidi, Harold Snieder, Behrooz Z. Alizadeh

Exclusive Breastfeeding and Cognition, Executive Function, and Behavioural Disorders in Primary School-Aged Children in Rural South Africa: A Cohort Analysis

Tamsen J. Rochat, Brian Houle, Alan Stein, Hoosen Coovadia, Anna Coutsoudis, Chris Desmond, Marie-Louise Newell, Ruth M. Bland

Agreements between Industry and Academia on Publication Rights: A Retrospective Study of Protocols and Publications of Randomized Clinical Trials

Benjamin Kasenda, Erik von Elm, John J. You, Anette Blümle, Yuki Tomonaga, Ramon Saccilotto, Alain Amstutz, Theresa Bengough, Joerg J. Meerpohl, Mihaela Stegert, Kelechi K. Olu, Kari A. O. Tikkinen, Ignacio Neumann, Alonso Carrasco-Labra, Markus Faulhaber, Sohail M. Mulla, Dominik Mertz, Elie A. Akl, Dirk Bassler, Jason W. Busse, Ignacio Ferreira-González, Francois Lamontagne, Alain Nordmann, Viktoria Gloy, Heike Raatz, Lorenzo Moja, Shanil Ebrahim, Stefan Schandelmaier, Xin Sun, Per O. Vandvik, Bradley C. Johnston, Martin A. Walter, Bernard Burnand, Matthias Schwenkglenks, Lars G. Hemkens, Heiner C. Bucher, Gordon H. Guyatt, Matthias Briel

Age, Spatial, and Temporal Variations in Hospital Admissions with Malaria in Kilifi County, Kenya: A 25-Year Longitudinal Observational Study

Polycarp Mogeni, Thomas N. Williams, Gregory Fegan, Christopher Nyundo, Evasius Bauni, Kennedy Mwai, Irene Omedo, Patricia Njuguna, Charles R. Newton, Faith Osier, James A. Berkley, Laura L. Hammitt, Brett Lowe, Gabriel Mwambingu, Ken Awuondo, Neema Mturi, Norbert Peshu, Robert W. Snow, Abdisalan Noor, Kevin Marsh, Philip Bejon

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The Effect of Sitagliptin on Carotid Artery Atherosclerosis in Type 2 Diabetes: The PROLOGUE Randomized Controlled Trial

Jun-ichi Oyama, Toyoaki Murohara, Masafumi Kitakaze, Tomoko Ishizu, Yasunori Sato, Kazuo Kitagawa, Haruo Kamiya, Masayoshi Ajioka, Masaharu Ishihara, Kazuoki Dai, Mamoru Nanasato, Masataka Sata, Koji Maemura, Hirofumi Tomiyama, Yukihito Higashi, Kohei Kaku, Hirotsugu Yamada, Munehide Matsuhisa, Kentaro Yamashita, Yasuko K. Bando, Naoki Kashihara, Shinichiro Ueda, Teruo Inoue, Atsushi Tanaka, Koichi Node, PROLOGUE Study Investigators

Obesity and Multiple Sclerosis: A Mendelian Randomization Study

Lauren E. Mokry, Stephanie Ross, Nicholas J. Timpson, Stephen Sawcer, George Davey Smith, J. Brent Richards

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