Alliance News
On Thursday, January 25, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance joined Alliance member Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign in co-hosting Dr. Matthew Harris, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Public Health Medicine and Honorary National Health Service Consultant in Public Health Medicine at Imperial College London, to discuss his newly released book, Decolonizing Healthcare Innovation: Low-Cost Solutions from Low-Income Countries.
You may access the recording through this link.
Dr. Raj Panjabi, a prominent physician, entrepreneur, and former White House official, shared his rich experiences and insights with the global health community at a fireside chat hosted by the Bay Area Global Health Alliance at Accenture’s San Francisco office on January 10. The chat and reception immediately followed the Alliance’s rich panel on healthcare in emerging markets held at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
Please click here to view the talk.
On Wednesday, January 10, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance hosted a panel discussion, Reimagining Healthcare in Emerging Markets: The Future of Healthcare Innovation and Investment at the renowned J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.
You may access the panel discussion recording through this link.
Mark your calendars! The Bay Area Global Health Alliance is hosting a panel discussion, Reimagining Healthcare in Emerging Markets: The Future of Healthcare Innovation and Investment, at the renowned J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Wednesday, January 10 from 5:15-6:00 PM in San Francisco.
As 2023 comes to a close, we reflect on what the Bay Area Global Health Alliance has accomplished, how we have shifted to meet the moments and our members’ needs, and where we need to go to advance global health equity and innovation.
Our theory of change is based on the assumption that collaboration across multiple sectors, geographies, and areas of expertise is necessary to solve today’s complex global health challenges. We believe in the catalytic power of shared knowledge and multi-sector cooperation and that, together, we can shift what is possible and achieve better and more sustainable health outcomes for all.
On Monday, October 30, 2023, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi received the first-ever Bay Area Global Health Alliance Leadership Award for her unwavering HIV/AIDS response leadership and contributions to advancing global health and equity throughout her career.
Too often, promising health interventions do not reach the world’s most vulnerable or are not effectively adapted to community needs and constraints. This often results in critical needs remaining unmet and growing health inequity, despite significant investment seeking to address these issues. On Thursday, October 26, 2023, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance’s Insights to Action: Ideation on Implementation for Equity event explored practical solutions to close the gap between what we know and what we do, using the lens of implementation science to advance health equity.
Last week Sara Anderson, Executive Director of the Alliance, was honored to be part of the White House Roundtable on AI and Health. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy convened a distinguished group of leaders from across sectors to discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) can be safely deployed to improve health outcomes, with a special breakout session on the use of AI to improve public health and global health. To prepare for the meeting, the Alliance sought input from our multi-sector members and key stakeholders on what three-four points they would make if they were at the table. At the OSTP listening session and roundtable, there was substantial alignment and echoes of our members’ priorities on many of the risks and opportunities before us at this pivotal moment.
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For the first time, the UN General Assembly will convene three High-Level Meetings on ending tuberculosis (TB), delivering universal health coverage (UHC) and strengthening pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response during its 78th session (UNGA 78) in New York in September 2023. To elevate and advocate for global health, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance will be attending UNGA 78, along with Alliance members, Accenture, Baraka Impact Finance, Cepheid, Chevron, Connective Impact, Cross-Border Impact Ventures, Fistula Foundation, Friends of the Global Fight, GAIA Global Health, GBCHealth, Global Health Corps, Global Health Council, Global Health Technologies Coalition, Merck, Meta, Nivi, PATH, Roche Diagnostics, Seed Global Health, Simprints, Watsi, and others.
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The Alliance is pleased to welcome two new members to our Board of Directors. Jeremy Alberga is the program development and strategy director with UCSF's Institute for Global Health Sciences. Natasha Sunderji is the global health and nutrition lead for Accenture’s social impact practice, Accenture Development Partnerships. She also co-leads Accenture's Health Equity Center of Excellence.
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"On behalf of the Alliance's Board of Directors, it has been a true honor to serve with Jaime. We are deeply grateful to him, not just for his great achievements in global health and his support for the Alliance from its initial conception, but also for the support and mentorship he has provided so many, myself included," said Colin Boyle, UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and chair of the Alliance Board of Directors. UCSF Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics Jaime Sepúlveda is stepping down from his post as executive director of UCSF's Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS), which he has led for the last 12 years. He is also moving on from his leadership on the Alliance Board of Directors, but he will continue as an IGHS faculty member.
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Join the Alliance, PSI, PATH, UNICEF, Google and other members at the second annual Africa Health Tech Summit in Kigali, October 17-19. Organized in partnership with the Africa CDC and SmartAfrica, the conference will explore how digital health can transform healthcare delivery across Africa. The Alliance was honored to have Africa CDC's Chief Digital Health Adviser Jean Philbert Nsengimana give the keynote address at the Alliance's Annual Meeting in June.
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Mark your calendars! On October 26, the Alliance will host a roundtable discussion on implementation science and health equity. The multi-sectoral discussion will focus on identifying the barriers and the solutions that will improve the implementation pathway for health interventions and, thus, improve health equity. Look for more information in our September newsletter.
Learn more.
"When you talk about the last mile, we are truly at the very last mile. As a rural hospital in Zimbabwe, we don’t often get the chance to interact with global health organizations to identify ways we can partner, share learnings, and deepen our impact. Being a member of the Bay Area Global Health Alliance has enabled us to connect with leaders in global health and share our work in a way we haven’t before." – Major Mereki, Head, Chidamoyo Christian Hospital. Spring outreach resulted in new partnerships with Alliance members MedShare and Fistula Foundation for the rural hospital to improve the delivery of maternal healthcare to Chidamoyo’s rural, last-mile patients.
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On August 8, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance hosted Salient Advisory for a presentation on the findings from their latest market intelligence report that provided insights on funding trends, uptake of digital supply chain solutions by governments, the diverse range of identified supply chain solutions, and more. The report is the first pan-African landscape of health supply chain innovators on the continent and tracks nearly 350 technology-enabled innovators digitizing supply chain processes in Africa.
Learn more and watch the recording.
On July 20 at UCSF, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance hosted Baraka Impact Finance for a conversation on innovative financing for global health in emerging markets. The discussion highlighted the potential of private capital to drive impactful health solutions, the growing interest in impact-focused investments, and the need for greater collaboration between investors, entrepreneurs, and nonprofits to address the challenges faced in global health financing.
Learn more and watch the recording.
"The ambitious agenda [of Africa CDC's Digital Transformation Strategy] over such a huge continent cannot be achieved unless every available resource is harnessed. And that can only be done through cross-collaboration partnerships," said Africa CDC's Chief Digital Health Adviser, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, at the Bay Area Global Health Alliance annual meeting on June 6. Attending were more than 125 members and guests, both online and in person at UCSF. Alliance board secretary Martin Dale, PSI, spoke with Nsengimana in a fireside chat that explored the rollout of Africa’s new digital partnership and how digital innovations and partnerships can advance health equity on the continent.
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"This year's World Health Assembly represents a pivotal moment to advance policy reforms to deliver a more fit-for-purpose, equitable research and development (R&D) ecosystem," stated the Global Health Technologies Coalition. To accelerate global health innovation and deliver health for all, they recommend WHO member states "take collective action now to establish more inclusive, globally distributed R&D systems and approaches." Other Alliance members also attending WHA76 include Baraka Impact Finance, Cross-Border Impact Ventures, Gilead Sciences, Global Health Council, Google, Living Goods, Meta, MSD for Mothers, PATH, Pathfinder International, Pfizer, PSI, ReSurge International, Seed Global Health, UNICEF, and Viamo.
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At the 2023 Consortium of Universities in Global Health (CUGH) meeting, two Bay Area Global Health Alliance members were honored for their extended commitment to the field of global health. Dr. Michele Barry, Stanford's senior associate dean of global health, was given the Distinguished Leadership Award for her extraordinary contributions to global health. It is the highest honor given by CUGH. Michael Reid, assistant professor of medicine, UCSF, co-director of STRIPE, and director of the IGHS Center for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, was presented with the Thomas Hall-Nelson Sewankambo Mid-Career Leadership Award.
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The Alliance welcomed Dr. Major Mereki, director of Alliance member Chidamoyo Hospital in northwest Zimbabwe, with a series of meetings, including a presentation through Stanford’s Center for Innovation in Global Health to Stanford’s Global Health Club of postdoc students and Stanford faculty. The conversation included insights into how a hospital in an extremely remote area manages to serve an impoverished community of 70,000 through power outages, currency risk, limited staff, and limited resources.
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The Alliance hosted an informal gathering of members including: Fistula Foundation, Kapnek Trust Zimbabwe, Friends of Chidamoyo, UC Berkeley, UCSF Bixby Center for Reproductive Health, Stanford, and Viamo to share experiences in rural healthcare delivery. Digital innovations such as the Butterfly Ultrasound device, which attaches to a cell phone and provides access to specialists for image analysis, were discussed as critical for low-resources settings.
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On February 15, the Alliance hosted a meeting marking the third anniversary of the formation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tech Task Force. Representatives from Google, Meta, TikTok, Amazon and other tech companies joined Alliance members for networking and short presentations by Andy Pattison, Team Lead Digital Channels, WHO and his esteemed WHO colleagues, Drs. Ruediger Krech, Director, Health Promotion and Vinayak Prasad, Program Manager.
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The Alliance and Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria brought together African health supply-chain innovators and global health stakeholders from multiple sectors to discuss how health supply chains are working to deliver equitable access to health in Africa. The dialogue was attended by 80 Alliance members and participants, including The Global Fund, Salient Advisory, Nivi, mPharma, Xetova, Chevron, JSI, Gilead, Stanford, BMGF, Vestergaard, Pathfinder, Americares, and Merck.
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Alliance member Population Services International (PSI) hosted a Global Digital Health Forum session on strengthening the role of social media in advancing global health. The session featured Christine Odour - PSI, Andy Pattison - World Health Organization, Erin Nilon - Johnson & Johnson, and Gladys Mugambi - Ministry of Health in Kenya. Hema Budaraju, Senior Director of Product - Health and Social Impact, Google Search and Board Co-Vice Chair of the Bay Area Global Health Alliance moderated the discussion.
Learn more and watch the recording.
Together with your engagement, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance has had a busy and productive year. Below you will find highlights, which we believe speak to our ability as a community to identify and advance opportunities to promote global health equity and innovation. As always, we welcome your feedback and continued involvement as we work to accelerate our collective health impact around the world.
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On November 15, UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences and the Bay Area Global Health Alliance co-hosted a virtual roundtable discussion on how to prevent the next pandemic. The online conversation featured award-winning science writer and author Laurie Garrett with: Jonna Mazet - Vice Provost, Grand Challenges, UC Davis; Chancellor’s Leadership Professor of Epidemiology and Disease Ecology, Larry Brilliant - physician and epidemiologist, CEO of Pandefense Advisory, senior counselor at the Skoll Foundation and a CNN Medical Analyst, Thu Do - Director, Medical Affairs, Global Patient Solutions, Gilead Sciences, and Paul Wesson - Assistant Professor, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Medicine, UCSF (serving as moderator).
Learn more and watch the recording.
Alliance member ETR’s YTH Live Global conference gives leaders in public health, education, content development, technology and youth advocacy the tools and strategies to positively shape youth, tech and health.
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On October 13, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance and the Center for Global Health Innovation brought together premier global health advocacy organizations Global Health Council, Global Health Technologies Coalition, and Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria to update members on the US government's global health budget, the impact of the pandemic on policy, new initiatives to spur innovation, and how to elevate equity in the global health agenda. The Alliance compiled key takeaways and guidance from the briefing that organizations from all sectors can utilize in their advocacy work.
Learn more and watch the recording.
At the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, Alliance member Google reinforced its commitment to health by announcing the launch of new Search features to help Americans access public food benefits and health care services.
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On September 19, Alliance member Zenysis Technologies announced a $5 million pledge, consisting of in-kind support in the form of technology and services, to The Global Fund’s seventh replenishment.