PATH is leading global initiative to crowdsource and assess innovations with the potential to save millions of lives by 2030
The PATH-led Innovation Countdown 2030 initiative (IC2030) today launched its inaugural report, Reimagining Global Health, at the Third International Conference on Financing for Development. The report features 30 innovations selected by international experts for their lifesaving potential and can be downloaded here.
2015 marks a seminal moment in global health as world leaders coalesce around new global goals that will determine the international development agenda and health investments over the next 15 years. Innovative technologies and approaches that make health care more affordable, more effective, and easier to access are key to reaching the new health goals by 2030.
Re-imagining Global Health is the result of a yearlong process to identify, evaluate, and showcase some of those high-potential health technologies and ideas, with the goal of catalyzing investment and support.
Two innovations found to have exceptional potential are a simple, low-cost antiseptic to prevent newborn infections and new technologies for small-scale water treatment at the community level. These two innovations alone, with expanded use, could save the lives of 2.5 million newborns and children by 2030.
Tapping innovation around the world
PATH sought ideas from experts, innovators, and technology developers worldwide, crowdsourcing solutions with great promise to accelerate progress toward reaching the 2030 health targets.
People in nearly 50 countries nominated more than 500 innovations for consideration. Dozens of independent health experts then assessed and ranked them, selecting the 30 innovations featured in the report.
“Innovation is the essential ingredient in empowering communities with solutions they can use to transform their own health,” said Steve Davis, PATH president and CEO. “To achieve the 2030 health targets, we must focus our brightest minds, collective resources, and shared aspirations on accelerating innovations with the most potential for impact.”
“World leaders are coming together in 2015 around new global goals that can ensure good health and equal opportunity for all. By prioritizing and coordinating investments in innovations that can deliver the greatest health value for money, we can create financially sustainable solutions that reach the millions of people who have yet to share in the gains of our progress,” said Mr. Borge Brende, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway.
The 30 selected innovations cover four health areas:
- Maternal, newborn, and child health, an area featuring innovations such as a uterine balloon tamponade to manage excessive bleeding after childbirth, the leading cause of maternal death; portable devices that measure oxygen levels in the blood to improve detection of pneumonia, the top killer of young children; and new treatments for severe diarrhea, another major cause of child deaths.
- Infectious diseases, where key innovations include malaria vaccine candidates, long-acting injectable drugs to treat HIV infection, and a novel multidrug treatment regimen to shorten the treatment for tuberculosis.
- Reproductive health, where new injectable contraceptives and expanded access to long-acting, reversible contraceptives such as intrauterine devices may have great impact.
- Noncommunicable diseases, where potentially transformative innovations include the use of a low-cost polypill to prevent cardiovascular disease and the use of mobile devices for chronic disease prevention and management.
“IC2030 identifies health solutions that have the potential to make a catalytic impact in global health over the next 15 years,” said Chris Elias, president of Global Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “By finding and amplifying promising ideas and strengthening the capacity of low-resource countries to develop, introduce, and share innovation, we can accelerate progress so that every person has an equal chance for a healthy and productive life.”
