As countries develop, access to healthcare may not improve evenly. In the West African nation of Ghana, gaps in access have left children with cancer and their families vulnerable. With the support of Sandoz, the UK-based charity World Child Cancer is using a multi-level approach to change this.
As the leading clinical pharmacologist at a hospital in Moscow, Dr. Sergey Dmitriyevich Mitrokhin has an important role to play in ensuring patients have access to effective medication. By educating staff physicians about the responsible use of antibiotics, he has brought a change in prescription behavior among his colleagues. And by introducing alternatives to commonly used antibiotics to which pathogens have become resistant, he has helped reduce infections significantly – while halving the hospital budget for anti-infective medicines.
Since the first human genome was sequenced in 2003, knowledge about this blueprint of life has grown quickly. The ability to process big data sets of numerous genomes with various other patient information increases access to new life-changing therapies.
With the release of a White Paper, the Sandoz Healthcare Challenge (HACk) – a competition that asked young people to submit ideas for improving access to medicine using mobile technology – is entering its next phase. The White Paper details lessons learned, and it serves as a foundation for the upcoming competition.
Access to training, research, drug discovery and the delivery of life-saving medicines can all be enhanced by the intelligent application of communication technologies and information-sharing platforms.
