Medical intelligence, security and global health: the foundations of a new health agenda.

Medical intelligence, security and global health are distinct fields that often overlap, especially as the drive towards a global health security agenda gathers pace. Here, we outline some of the ways in which this has happened in the recent past during the recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa and in the killing of Osama Bin laden by US intelligence services. We evaluate medical intelligence and the role it can play in global health security; we also attempt to define a framework that illustrates how medical intelligence can be incorporated into foreign policy action in order delineate the boundaries and scope of this growing field. © The Royal Society of Medicine.