Global Health Ideathon 2021
Global Health Ideathon 2021
Over the course of three weeks during September, we held a cross-border online event, “Global Health Ideathon 2021,” to create an opportunity for international innovation and collaboration, youth empowerment, and ideation to support global efforts for pandemic preparedness.
After receiving over 200 registrations, more than 100 dedicated students from Africa, Asia, North America, and Europe were divided into teams and conducted problem identification as well as solution ideation to propose new ideas to the question of: “How can we make a better pandemic response plan?”. The following six topics, the constituents of a pandemic response plan, were set as sub-themes: A) Disease Surveillance, B) Access to Healthcare, C) Medication Development, D) Risk Communication, E) Business & Economy, and F) Governance & Policy.
To learn more about the situation on the ground during the three weeks, we hosted five special talk sessions with the following experts from various fields. We will share about these in further detail in the coming weeks.
Dr. Thomas Boillat, Assistant Professor in Healthcare Innovation and Technologies, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences
Ms. Eloise Todd, Co-Founder, Pandemic Action Network
Dr. Shinichi Kitaoka, President, Japan International Cooperation Agency
Mr. Marc Wormald, Senior Policy Advisor, Uniting to Combat NTDs
Ms. Moe Miyahara, Associate Durable Solutions Officer, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
On September 25th, the final pitch day, a total of six teams gave presentations on their ideas, and the following three special judges were invited to provide feedback and select the Outstanding Award and Runner-up Award.
Chief Nathaniel Ebo Nsarko, Executive Director, Millennium Promise Alliance
Dr. Barnabas Alayande, Global Surgery Fellow at University of Global Health Equity, Paul Farmer Global Surgery Fellow at Harvard Medical School
Ms. Christina Scaduto, Strategy Manager, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
As a next step, we aim to host Healthcare Hackathon this winter, where we will delve into creating prototypes of the solutions presented at the ideathon. Stay tuned for more updates from the LIAISON team!