Lord Darzi leads efforts to tackle global health

The Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) will work closely with Governments, NGOs and business to ensure that innovations in healthcare and health policy have a significant impact across the world. Bringing together world-leading academics in medical science, engineering, business and health policy, the aim is to improve health and reduce health inequalities in both developed and developing countries. Prof. Darzi commented: “Healthcare systems all over the world are facing completely different pressures compared with 20 years ago. Life expectancy has increased dramatically, lifestyle diseases such as obesity are rife, and noncommunicable diseases such as diabetes are increasingly becoming a problem in developing countries as well as in the West. We can’t just build more hospitals or buy more beds; the whole way in which we provide healthcare has got to change. The world is crying out for low cost, high impact technologies that can be employed widely across the globe. “Imperial’s track record in coming up with major discoveries in medicine and engineering is unquestioned, but for those breakthroughs to have a real impact, they need to feed into policy. I’ve had a particular interest in policy for the last four or five years and I understand the different sorts of challenges facing us in healthcare across the world. I think the solutions are there, and the Institute of Global Health Innovation will provide us with a platform to make that change happen and to have that impact globally.” The IGHI’s Deputy Chairman, Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, brings to the global health arena a wealth of expertise in engineering, having spent his career developing new medical and sensor technologies. One of his current projects is to develop miniature wireless sensors that can be worn on the body to monitor a patient’s health remotely. Such devices, he points out, will be useful for developed countries with burgeoning elderly populations as well as in deprived countries where healthcare services are limited. “State-of-the-art technology does not have to be expensive, and innovation should not be just for the West,” Prof. Yang said. “Our challenge is to find common ground for innovation, so we can develop safe, effective and accessible technologies that can benefit people in both developed and developing countries.” Research at the IGHI will also seek to develop innovative systems for training medics and improving patient safety using low-cost methods. Prof. Darzi has already pioneered the use of surgical safety checklists that are proven to lower the risk of harmful outcomes for patients. “Technology is the means to the end; it’s not the end,” he said. “We need the right business models around technologies to make them sustainable in any healthcare system, whether it’s in Africa or in Scotland.”