From Equitable Access to Equitable Innovation: Rethinking Bioengineering for Global Health


Foundation: Gates Foundation

credit: Techno-Quest

The concept of "global health equity"the notion that people in developing countries have access to affordable health careis a great one, but it's "often interpreted as global 'access' to technologies, thereby neglecting wider structural inequalities," researchers write in the journal Lancet Global Health.

"Here we suggest that the concepts of equity need to be expanded to incorporate principles of equitable representation and recognition within the innovation ecosystem," they write.

That ecosystem, in this case, involves universities, research funders, and other groups that work to bring new technologies to the developing world.

"If we want to make global health a reality, we have to start here," the co-author of the study, which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, tells the New York Times.

The Gateses helped found the Global Frugal Diagnostics Network, which aims to bring affordable, high-quality, and easy-to-use medical technology to the world's poorest countries.

The study's co-author, a bioethicist, tells the Times that the concept of global health equity needs to be expanded to include "the principles of equitable representation and recognition within the innovation ecosystem."

For example, developing countries need to share the burden of research and development costs with richer

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