Richard Coker is Reader in Public Health and head of the Communicable Diseases Policy Research Group at the Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. Martin McKee CBE is Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK and Research Director, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. Rifat Atun is Professor of International Health Management and Director of the Centre for Health Management at Imperial College London, UK, where he leads a multidisciplinary group of researchers.