In global AIDS programs, it is easier to measure inputs than results. Current calls for doubling of aid to Africa, and the US refusal to agree, represent the focus on inputs. India's recent vacillating numbers of AIDS cases represent the difficulty in measuring results.

There will soon be a major new initiative to try to shift the focus from inputs to results. The San Francisco Chronicle and the Harvard Crimson both report that Larry Ellison, founder and CEO of Oracle, will soon make a major gift to Harvard University to establish a research center for global health monitoring. The gift, reported to be approximately $115 million, would be the largest ever received by Harvard. According to Ellison:

"We measure philanthropy the wrong way. We measure the input -- how much someone gives. It's better to measure how many lives we save."

The research center reportedly will address needs articulated by Harvard Professor Christopher Murray, who wrote last fall in the British Medical Journal of the need for a global health monitoring organization independent of the WHO and government influences.

The objective of this body would be to report regularly to the world on what is spent on health, what health services are delivered, and the impact of these efforts on population health.