Tech Talk

Last year I wrote a post about the Harvard Global Health Institute’s Global Infectious Disease Symposium on new diagnostics and noted that it was fun to hear from Aydogan Ozcan, a professor of electrical engineering at UCLA (Ozcan faculty page).  He is an enthusiastic speaker and spoke on his work on cellphone-based diagnostic devices, aka [...]

On the Drawing Board

Last week I posted an update to progress in developing and deploying better diagnostics for tuberculosis (“TB Dx:  Getting There,” 3/1/12), but didn’t adequately cover the work aimed at the “holy grail” of TB Dx.  What is needed in the under-resourced countries are point-of-care (POC) devices to diagnose the 60-plus percent of TB patients first [...]

TB Dx: Getting There

As I have noted in past posts, the need for diagnostic tests (Dx) for tuberculosis (TB) is immense and immediate (“ReDuX,” 1/6/11, and “ReDuX Part II,” 1/13/11).  TB is a major problem in the developing world (8.8 million people are infected each year) and a growing one in the developed world with the emergence of [...]

Eyes on the Prize

One popular idea among the global health policy wonks is that offering big cash prizes will “incentivize” companies to develop products for global health diseases, and back in March, the Gates Foundation-funded think tank, the Center for Global Health R and D Policy Assessment (CGHRDPA), part of the Results for Development Institute consulting company (R4D), [...]

Thinking Out of the Box Reprise

Since I am making progress as an adviser to companies developing diagnostics for global health, and one of them, Diagnostics for All, got a nice mention in a recent issue of Technology Review (TR article, TR article), I am reposting my write-up from 5/23/10 of a session on diagnostics from the BIO 2010 meeting: In [...]

Micro Need Macro Problem

An aspect of global health I’m learning more about is the relationship between health and nutrition, an aspect that we, in the land of the large, all-you-can-eat buffets, and a multi-billion “dieting” industry, easily ignore, but obviously, for many of the world’s citizens, especially those whose developing minds and bodies need nutrition, is a major [...]

B2B2B2B

Last week, I attended the Harvard Global Health Institute’s 5th Annual Global Infectious Disease Scientific Symposium, entitled “New Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases- From Bench to Bedside” (Agenda), and enjoyed learning about the inventive and creative ideas from the academic bench and the one product from a company that is getting closer to the bedside. The [...]

ReDuX Part II

At the risk of sounding like a malfunctioning obsolete acoustical storage media, I am returning to the topic of last week’s post:  the launch of the Xpert® MTB/RIF diagnostic test which the WHO stated could “revolutionize” TB care and control (Reuters article).  WHO approved the test and issued a “Roadmap” to guide purchasers to the [...]

ReDuX

Last week I wrote about why vaccine development and new vaccines may be important in global health in the coming year, one of which is their cost-effectiveness (they prevent rather than treat).  What I did not note is that, as something that is put into people, assuring their safety and effectiveness is time- and labor-intensive [...]

Fio Cruise

One hobby horse that I ride is the idea that, as the developing world develops, it will also be developing the multiple inputs needed to support a biotechnology industry, one that will invent and make affordable and profitable products for both domestic use and export (e.g., my posting of April 8, 2010).  This topic was [...]