Over the past two decades, the study of the politics of global health has become an increasingly popular and important scholarly topic. A host of social scientists, public health researchers, medical scientists and historians have taken an interest in exploring the international and domestic political aspects of healthcare reform, ranging from government and civil societal responses to disease, to issues of health insurance coverage, health systems strengthening, and inequality in social services provision. There has also been a shift from a focus on healthcare issues in the advanced industrialized nations, such as the United States and Western Europe, to the developing world and more recently, select emerging economies, such as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).