Recap: Global Health Security Innovation Week 2022 at SXSW
World Health Leaders and Innovators United for Pandemic Preparedness
Dr. Peter Hotez, Dennis Boyle, Samantha Dittrich and Pradeep Kakkattil among keynotes for virtual conference organized by TEXGHS, IDEO, GHSN, and UNAIDS Health Innovation Exchange
After four days of gathering more than 600 individuals worldwide for 55 sessions from 76 speakers representing more than 30 countries, the first-of-its-kind Global Health Security Innovation Week 2022 (GHSIW) virtual conference at SXSW has come to a close.
Global Health Security (GHS) Innovation Week works to bridge health security and technology innovation communities to define and communicate today’s most pressing challenges in predicting, preventing, detecting, and responding to global health security threats for pandemic preparedness and recovery.
The conference culminated in an unforgettable keynote by Nobel Peace Prize nominee Dr. Peter Hotez, the premiere of “The Power of Science,” and a roundtable featuring top scientists from the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard. If you’re interested in viewing the conference sessions, the content can be accessed via the virtual platform until April 1, 2022 here.
Grown out of Austin, Texas with the support of life science partners and the University of Texas at Austin and a now global network, Texas Global Health Security Innovation Consortium (TEXGHS) hosted Global Health Security (GHS) Innovation Week 2022 as an official virtual event within the SXSW Conference and Festival alongside organizing partners IDEO, Global Health Security Network (GHSN), UNAIDS Health Innovation Exchange, and Austin Technology Incubator (ATI).
“GHS Innovation Week is a forum for the global health and technology innovation communities to work together to solve our most critical global health security challenges,” shares Lisa McDonald, MD, MSTC, founding partner of TEXGHS and director of healthcare at Austin Technology Incubator at the University of Texas at Austin. “GHSIW helps innovators build and share sustainable and scalable solutions that meet the needs of those on the front lines of fighting COVID-19 and preparing to meet future global health threats.”
The 2021 Global Health Security Index, released in December, ranked 195 countries according to their capacity to respond to epidemics and pandemics. According to the latest report, “all countries remain dangerously unprepared for meeting future epidemic and pandemic threats. A great opportunity exists, however, to make new capacities more durable to further long-term gains in preparedness.” GHSIW was designed to address the issues faced by countries across the globe and covered topics of pandemic readiness, vaccine development, access to healthcare, equity and distribution, as well as lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic applicable to the next global health crisis.
Global Health Security Innovation Week Program Highlights:
GHS Innovation Week 2022 featured an international exhibition of start-ups, entrepreneurs and country-specific programs leading COVID-19 response and recovery, while building new solutions to face future health security challenges.
The conference emphasized the importance of locally driven innovation in emerging ecosystems (LMICs) and promoted equitable access to technologies and resources for ensuring health security in all communities.
GHS Innovation Week sessions addressed the themes of preparation, response, cooperation, and recovery from health security threats across the following topics:
- Health Equity and Accessibility
- Mental Health and Community Resiliency
- Public Health Solutions and Emerging Infectious Diseases Public Policy and Communication
- One Health and Climate Change
- Vaccine Development and Distribution
- Emerging Innovation Ecosystems
- Biosafety and Biosecurity
- Diagnostics and Therapeutics
- Future Health Security Threats
- Investment in GHS Innovation
March 12: Keynote speaker Dennis Boyle, partner and founding member of IDEO “Thinking like a Healthcare Designer” + IDEO Design for One Health Workshop: human-centered design workshop focused on communicating the impact of environmental health on human health
March 13: Keynote speaker Samantha Dittrich, MPH, associate director for global health security at Merrick & Company. “Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA): Past, Present, and Future”
March 14: UNAIDS Demo Day: Virtual pitch event + keynote speaker Pradeep Kakkatil, Director of Innovation, UNAIDS, Switzerland and recent World Economic Forum 2022 Social Innovator of the Year award winner. “UNAIDS Health Innovation Exchange (HIEx): Scaling Innovations to Build Resilient Health Systems”
March 14: Keynote speaker Peter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., American scientist, co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development, co-creator of the CORBEVAX vaccine, and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize nominee on vaccines and recovery.
ABOUT TEXAS GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY INNOVATION CONSORTIUM (TEXGHS)
Infections and disease can spread rapidly and seemingly without warning in our globally connected world, putting people anywhere and everywhere at risk with little warning. Texas Global Health Security Innovation Consortium (TEXGHS), founded in 2020, is a global network of innovators, academia, public sector and private sector partners worldwide whose mission is to bring innovative solutions to global health security. TEXGHS is dedicated to thwarting current and future global health threats by fueling invention, innovation and best practices and processes in disease control and prevention.
Learn more at TEXGHS.org
Connect on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn with #TEXGHS and #GHSIW22.
