New York, August 4, 2020: A ‘Global Healthcare Summit’ with pioneers in the healthcare industry from around the world, was held on Thursday, 30 July 2020, by Respada, an invitation-only niche platform providing private market opportunities to the ultra-affluent.
Dr. Robert Bollinger, Founder and Director of John Hopkins University’s Center for Clinical Global Health Education delivered the keynote speech entitled ‘Grand Challenges in Public Health Policy.’ Dr. Bollinger emphasized the “game-changing potential” of public-private partnerships (PPPs) towards not only the research and development of Covid-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines but also in their manufacturing and commercialization. “So far, PPPs have invested more than 5 billion dollars” towards developing a COVID vaccine,” he said. Dr. Bollinger also highlighted the success of PPPs in developing “novel point-of-need diagnostic tests, including “multiplex tests” wherein a single swab is used to test for multiple infectious diseases.” In closing, he observed, “PPPs are working on strategies designed to save lives, flatten the curve and reduce costs amidst the pandemic” and through that, they aim to set a template for future PPPs globally.
So far, PPPs have invested more than 5 billion dollars towards developing a COVID vaccine.
Following the keynote address, the first panel of the summit, on ‘Healthcare Technology Trends,’ comprised innovators such as Reid Maclellan MD, Founder and CEO of Cortina Health, David Kerwar, Chief Product Officer of Mount Sinai Health System, and Lyle Berkowitz, MD, CEO of Back9 Healthcare Consulting and Associate Professor at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. Dr. Maclellan pointed out that “telemedicine is one of the leading trends of Covid-19” and projected a boost in the overall global telemedicine market with a fourfold market value increase in the US alone. “Virtual health is more than just calls and messages,” said Dr. Berkowitz. “It will extend beyond telemedicine to various forms of autonomous care as well, including chatbots to support triage, diagnosis and therapeutics,” he added.
In agreement, Mr. Kerwar noted that telemedicine provides “convenient as well as personalized care for each consumer’s condition.” Additionally, he explained how the “team at Mount Sinai is focused on transforming the consumer’s journey in healthcare by focusing on three key areas – namely the journey to access care, to navigate the health system, and to manage payment experience.”
Moving further, the second panel, on ‘Drug Development Landscape,’ covered challenges for the biopharmaceutical industry in the COVID era. Panelists included eminent leaders such as Uzma Syed, MD, Infectious Disease Specialist, Chair of Covid-19 taskforce, and President of Align Us, Reid Rubsamen, MD, CEO of Flow Pharma and Yaoping Ruan, Chief Data Scientist at LinkDoc Technologies. Dr. Syed discussed the challenges faced by the medical community while “being on the frontline in the epicenter in New York.” She described how they were forced to think and adapt quickly to the constantly evolving research. Dr. Syed reminded us that with “no curative medication or preventive vaccine” available now, focusing on infection prevention methods such as mask-wearing and social distancing is crucial. Further, Dr. Ruan highlighted the need for “remote clinical trials” and “patient engagement platforms” and shared the incredible work at LinkDoc Technologies on the same.
Finally, Dr. Rubsamen shared his groundbreaking work on bringing a unique T-cell targeted therapy to treat patients who were infected with Covid-19 but were asymptomatic. While acknowledging that the current pandemic triggered the “fastest development cycle in the history of the world,” he emphasized the “criticality of vaccine testing before widespread usage” by deploying crucial “stop-gap measures” and clinical trials to ensure the safety of the vaccine. Moderator of the panel Amita Kundra, MD, an anesthesiologist, researcher and writer, further stressed that, “As a practicing anesthesiologist, Dr. Rubsamen has witnessed the insidious nature of this disease, which has resulted in his plans to complete clinical trials in the safest manner possible.”
In her closing remarks Dr. Kundra said “it was great meeting panelists around the world” and restated that “during these unprecedented times, collaboration between the public and private industry is needed to tackle the beast that is Covid-19.”
John Prince, CEO of Respada concluded, “Covid-19 has got us unprepared and tested the nerves of the leadership as well as the healthcare infrastructure. This edition of the Respada Global Healthcare summit took a comprehensive look at what worked and what did not from a multistakeholder perspective.”