Innovation + Impact E-newsletter February 2019

FEATURE   UNMANNED AERIAL SYSTEMS IN GLOBAL HEALTH COORDINATING BODY The Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in Global Health Coordinating Body, which sits under the Interagency Supply Chain Group, just launched its website. This coordinating body supports country governments, donors, technology and implementing partners to make more informed decisions about integrating UAS in supply chain systems to improve global health outcomes. The coordinating body is composed of seven major donor and international organization members, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK development agency DFID, Gavi, the German development agency GIZ, the Global Fund, UNICEF, and USAID. To learn more, visit the Interagency Supply Chain Group website, or read this Devex articlefeaturing the coordinating body.

INNOVATION It Takes a Mosquito to Fight a Mosquito The New York Times highlighted two Combating Zika and Future Threats Grand Challenge innovators, Monash University's World Mosquito Program and Michigan State University, for their work with mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia, a naturally-occurring bacteria that blocks or greatly reduces the transmission of diseases such as Zika and Dengue when introduced into Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Through their work with USAID, the World Mosquito Program is releasing Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes for population replacement in Colombia, and Michigan State is piloting the release of Wolbachia-infected male mosquitoes to suppress the wild mosquito population in Mexico. Read more.  INNOVATION Global Health Innovation Act Signed into Law Last month, the Global Health Innovation Act was signed into law. This bipartisan bill aims to support USAID’s efforts to develop innovations that are affordable and appropriate for the most vulnerable populations in global health. Specifically, the bill directs USAID to report to Congress annually on the development and use of global health innovations in USAID programs, projects, and activities, including how USAID is leveraging US investments to achieve great health innovation and how innovation advances USAID’s commitments to reach global health goals.  PARTNERSHIPS Norad joins ATscale: Global Partnership for Assistive Technology In January, NORAD became a member of ATscale, a global partnership for assistive technology (AT). ATscale aims to reach 500 million more people by 2030 with the life-changing assistive technology that they need through harnessing service delivery and market shaping approaches, creating partnerships with the private sector to build and serve markets, and encouraging an enabling environment and building political will. NORAD is the most recent partner to join ATscale, alongside USAID, DFID, CHAI, China Disabled Persons' Federation, International Disability Alliance, Global Disability Innovation Hub, Government of Kenya, Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Health, UNICEF, and the WHO.  MARKET ACCESS Nigeria Federal Ministry of Health Leads National Meeting on Childhood Pneumonia As a member of the Every Breath Counts (EBC) Coalition, USAID is supporting the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) to develop an integrated pneumonia control strategy and implementation plan for reducing the high burden of preventable mortality from pneumonia. This effort is in line with the FMoH's broader approach towards reducing newborn and child mortality. To kick-start the development of this implementation plan, the FMoH convened a national stakeholder meeting with 75 attendees, including representatives from the FMoH, various state ministries of health, professional/regulatory bodies, and EBC partners on January 30th in Abuja. The outputs of the meeting will feed into the drafting of the strategy and implementation plan as part of next steps.  INNOVATION USAID Announces $12M for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer in sub-Saharan Africa USAID, in partnership with the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), will dedicate $12 million to support the expansion of integrated programs to prevent cervical cancer and improve women's health in Malawi and Mozambique. Cervical Cancer has become one of the largest killers of women in the developing world, and Malawi and Mozambique have some of the highest rates of cervical cancer in the world. This is the first time USAID has funded programs to prevent cervical cancer in the context of broader women's health. Learn more about the winners at the NASEM website. CII is excited to support this effort, including market shaping for new cervical cancer prevention, diagnostic, and treatment technologies.

EVENTS March 8–10, 2019 10th Annual Consortium of Universities for Global Health Conference CUGH, Chicago, Illinois March 18—19, 2019 Innovations in Healthcare Annual Forum Duke Health, Washington, DC March 27—28, 2019 Health Datapalooza AcademyHealth, Washington, DC March 27—28, 2019 IFC Global Private Health Conference International Finance Corporation, Miami, Florida April 13–14, 2019 2019 Global Health & Innovation Conference Unite for Sight, New Haven, Connecticut  WHAT WE'RE READING Wired Machine Learning can Fix How We Manage Health on a Global Scale World Economic Forum Value in Healthcare [PDF, 9.7MB] International Journal of Travel Medicine and Global Health Lessons from Zika Policies to Improve Gender Equity International Development Research Center Digital Economies at Global Margins Policy Cures Research G-FINDER 2018 Report International Journal of Health Policy and Management What Health System Challenges Should Responsible Innovation in Health Address? [PDF, 1.5MB]  CII NEWS The University of Melbourne featuring Saving Lives at Birth innovator Saving Lives when the Power Goes Out February 2019 The Aspen Institute featuring Combating Zika innovator 2019 New Voices Fellows January 30, 2019 STAT News featuring Project Last Mile To Improve Global Health, the Private Sector Must Be on Board  January 25, 2019 Project Last Mile New PLM website December 2018  NEWS Fierce Biotech FDA Creating Innovation Office to Speed Drug Development Jan 8, 2019 BBC News Global Health Research Money Reaches ‘Record High’ January 23, 2019 National Institutes of Health AI Approach Outperformed Human Experts in Identifying Cervical Precancer January 10, 2019 Financial Times and International Finance Corporation FT/IFC Transformational Business Awards: Innovating for Disability February 2019 WHO Call for Papers: New Ethical Challenges of Digital Technologies, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence in Public Health [PDF, 576KB] January 2, 2019 The African Academy of Sciences Supporting Plan S, a Model Making Research Accessible and Advancing Science Globally January 11, 2019 The Lancet A New Voice for Promoting Digital Technologies in Health Practice Worldwide February 2019 USAID-funded Water, Sanitation, Hygiene Partnerships and Learning for Sustainability Seeking Expressions of Interest for WASH Behavior Change Innovations [PDF, 668KB] February 5, 2019

CII Staff Spotlight   Monisha Ashok, Market Access Advisor “I am interested in adopting innovative business models to improve access to global health products and services, applying human-centered design to better serve the end-user, and modernizing our approach using better data and technologies.” Read the full interview [PDF, 226KB].