Weekly News Roundup
News, Events and Observations about Health Markets in the Developing World
Program News
Beyond Capital Fund is reinvesting an additional $10,000 in E Health Point, a program that provides families in rural villages with clean drinking water, medicines, comprehensive diagnostic tools, and advanced tele-medical services. E Health Point will use the capital to continue to scale their water treatment units and to strengthen their core staff. Read more here!
General News
TIME featured an interesting article this week in TIME Healthland on why over 40% of donated medical equipment goes unused in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). A lack of resources and qualified health workers seems to be the culprit, though there are other interesting issues involved in the non-use of high-technology equipment. Click here to read more about them.
A bloodless circumcision device for adults is going to be piloted in nine African countries this coming year, according to the New York Times. The device, PrePex, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is not only bloodless, but does not require sutures, or injected anasthesia, and only requires two skilled nurses to attach the device. Click here to read more about this innovative device.
Congratulation to Angola! The country which has been one of the few that has experienced the brunt of the re-emergence of the polio virus in Africa, has experienced one whole year with no new cases documented. The country launched a massive campaign, which for the first time in its history, reached 95 percent of its target audience. Read more about this exciting landmark moment here.
Opportunities
The Second Global Symposium on Health System Research is coming up, and its being held in Beijing this year. The session last year drew in experts on health systems research from around the world, and it is guaranteed to do the same this year. The event is from October 31st to November 3rd, and revolves around three main themes: state-of-the-art research, measures and methods, and knowledge translation. There will be a keynote address from the Chinese Minister of Health, and it will include presentations, posters, and speeches from a variety of health professionals. Be sure to give it a look!
The USAID Bureau for Global Health is sponsoring the 12th Annual Global Health Mini-University! The Mini-University is an annual event that brings together professionals from the Global Health arena in a forum to learn from one another. The event will be held on Friday, September 14, 2012 from 8:00am-4:30pm at the George Washington University Cloyd Heck Marvin Center. Read about it here.
Sanofi, French pharmaceutical company and global health care leader, is holding a competition for U.S. developers called the Collaborate Activate Innovation Challenge. The competition calls for U.S. developers to submit innovative proposals on how to get people more engaged in their health. Submissions will only be accepted till August 31st, and first and second place win 300k and 100k respectively, in addition to a plethora of non-monetary resources from Sanofi, so be sure to submit your concept soon!
Academy Health, a leading U.S. national organization serving the fields of health service and policy research, is holding four free 90 minute webinars on the use of mHealth technologies for health researchers. The first webinar “What are the tools for collecting mHealth data?, is being held September 10th, 3:30-5:00pm EST. Read more about this learning opportunity here.