Health
Experts discuss IP commercialisation, barriers to domestic innovation at 4th Annual IP Dialogue
Experts and Participants discussed support for intellectual property (IP) commercialization, challenges in fighting the global pandemic, barriers to domestic innovation, and the “next generation” of IP policy discussions in the digital economy at the 4th Annual IP Dialogue.
The US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) and US India Business Council, in partnership with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), virtually convened government and industry leaders for the final session of its 4th annual IP Dialogue. Although the global pandemic continues to affect millions, this year’s dialogue proved to be incredibly impactful, with IP playing such a key role in efforts to study and combat the ongoing global pandemic.
University to help health practitioners find innovative solutions to healthcare challenges
The growing challenges on healthcare systems around the world has inspired researchers at the University of Bath to devise an online course to help healthcare practitioners spot opportunities for innovation in their organisations, and put ideas into practise.
The free online course, known as a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) takes four weeks to complete and is devised by the School of Management’s Centre for Healthcare Innovation and Improvement (CHI²), along with the West of England Academic Health Science Network (AHSN).
What South Korea’s vaccine industry success teaches us about global trade policy
Jennifer Brant of the Innovation Council co-authored an article with Godfrey Firth for the World Economic Forum that uses the example of South Korea to show that tariff, trade facilitation and regulatory harmonisation measures can facilitate the global response to health crises such as COVID-19.
Capacity Building for Vaccine Manufacturing Across Developing Countries: The Way Forward
Innovation Council member Techinvention has published an article on capacity building for vaccine manufacturing. The authors of the paper show that challenges in the life cycle of vaccine production include process development, lead time, intellectual property, and local vaccine production. A robust and stable manufacturing process and constant raw material supplies over decades is critical. In a continuously evolving vaccine landscape, the need of the hour for developing nations is to manufacture their own vaccines besides having supply security, control over production scheduling and sustainability, control of costs, socio-economic development, and rapid response to local epidemics. There is a need for capacity building of workforce development, technology transfer, and financial support. Technology transfer has improved vaccine access and reduced prices of vaccines. Capacity building for the manufacturing of vaccines in developing countries has always been an area of paramount importance and more so in a pandemic situation.
Webinar on BioManufacturing: Expanding Production Capacity in Emerging Regions
The Innovation Council and Bobab organised a discussion on expanding BioManufacturing production capacity in emerging regions. Biologics, a category of pharmaceuticals which includes products such as vaccines and monoclonal antibody treatments, are quickly becoming among the most important medical products in the world. By combining enabling government policies and technology transfer between innovators and their global partners, it will be possible to improve availability of biologics, increase health security, and enhance scientific and industrial capacity in developing countries.
Information about speaker Anissa Boumlic is available here.
Information about speaker Mark Schultz is available here.
Information about speaker Simon Agwale is available here.
Information about AVMI is available here.
For more information on this discussion, click here to see the transcript.
Americans don’t have equal access to mental healthcare but technology is making it more democratic
One of the oldest, yet still unresolved issues plaguing the US health system is the unequal distribution of healthcare. This past August, a new study by JAMA revealed the ongoing disparity in healthcare spending by race. In particular, mental healthcare remains highly inaccessible across the board, but particularly for certain groups. Patients are screened for mental health in less than 5% of primary care visits, and Black people are half as likely to be examined than white people. And the elderly are also half as likely to be screened than middle-aged patients. However, novel health technologies are allowing us to move into a new era of equality and improved access to healthcare for everyone, eliminating the barriers between people and healthcare, by putting the patient at the center of care versus the provider.
Revolutionising the education ecosystem with artificial intelligence
The pandemic broke our long-accepted beliefs that a good education can only happen in a physical classroom, with a teacher imparting lessons to all students. It underscored the importance of a new approach to learning. While virtual lessons were a crucial stop-gap solution, we need to recognise that this crisis has presented us with an opportunity to change the way we educate our children – that we can herald a new future of education with the help of innovative technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). With new technologies available, teaching can be done in a different, even more effective way.
US 5G Wireless Growth Opportunities in Healthcare
5G will accommodate dramatically more devices, media, and users. This will especially impact the Internet of Things, which will result in a huge increase in the amount of remote monitors and sensors that will allow patients to be tracked while on the go. The new level of patient-generated healthcare data will permit enhanced analysis of various conditions and diseases, which will support personalized medicine and improved outcomes. 5G technology will also enable wireless carriers to offer providers and payers new ways to manage spectrum. This will permit the development of wireless private networks that are able to support a healthcare enterprise’s evolving IT needs.
‘To be a scientist is a joy’: How a Hungarian biochemist helped revolutionize mRNA
Scientists generally don’t seek the limelight, but Dr. Katalin Kariko has been thrust right into it. The once obscure biochemist is now on the covers of magazines and newspapers because of her role in developing mRNA vaccine technology. An idea she started working on in the 1990s when no one thought it would work. She grew up daughter to a butcher, in a poor town near Budapest, where she lived in one room with her family for the first 10 years of her life. During this time, she also learned the skills for success there: determination, hard work and a positive attitude.