Meeting DNDi

HTech4Dev was recently approached by the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative (DNDi) a non-profit product-development partnership. DNDi aims at improving the quality of life and the health of people suffering from neglected diseases by working in partnership with private industry, public institutions, academia and NGOs. DNDi is seeking new treatments and new diagnostics for the Onchocerciasis disease (also known as river blindness), a human filarial infection caused by a nodule-dwelling filarial nematode. The question DNDi addressed to HTech4Dev relates to the availability of a cheap and robust technology able to facilitate disease diagnostic, and to assess the effect of novel drug candidates. Through HTech4Dev, contact has been initiated between DNDI, several technology providers and several field experts in France and in Cameroon, the country where the only relevant animal model is maintained. A meeting will be soon organized in Aviesan’s premises to coordinate this work and to identify adequate financing.

Mental E-Health in Senegal

JUST TO MENTION THAT THIS PROPOSAL WAS NOT ACCEPTED BY THE CHARITY BUT PROF. NIANG FOUND OTHER WAYS TO FUND PART OF IT!
With the assistance of a consortium organized through HTech4Dev, Prof. Mbayang Ndiaye NIANG recently submitted a Letter of Intent to Grand Challenge Canada about her project on mental e-health in Senegal.

This project is aimed at overcoming the large regional disparities in access to mental healthcare in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) through the deployment of relevant Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. These technologies will firstly provide support to primary care health workers by strengthening their links with specialized physicians working in reference centers and will secondly build permanent links between health workers and patients through teleconsultation. A pilot phase will take place in Louga and St Louis, and a second phase will involve the target population of patients (settled and wandering) with severe mental disorders and their relatives in six regions of Senegal: Saint Louis, Louga, Matam, Tambacounda, Kaffrine, and Diourbel. Reduction of the impact of discrimination and stigmatization will be also addressed through specific e-training programs directed towards health professionals and lay persons. This comprehensive approach, if successful, may be easily adapted to similar settings, thanks to the growing access of the vast majority of LMICs to ICT tools.

With support of various stakeholders, we believe this project may durably change mental healthcare in Senegal:

• University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar
• Senegalese Ministry of Health and Social Affairs
• Senegalese Ministry of ICTs
• MEDES (Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology)
• Astrium Satellites
• Sanofi, Access to medicines
• St. Boniface Hospital, Winnipeg, Canada
• CNRS, Aix-Marseille University
• UMVF: the Francophone Virtual Medical University

We really hope to receive good news in May to prepare this ambitious and exciting project along the WHO Global Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020!

Towards Asia!

 

On Monday October 1st in Paris, Aviesan has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Innovation Agency of Thailand. This important event should help to disseminate HTech4Dev in Southern Asia. A workshop co-funded by NIA and Aviesan will be organized next year in Thailand to select some projects of health tech implementation in some of the neighbouring countries of Thailand.

2012 EU/Member States-India Joint Stakeholders' Conference

The Indo-European Partnership for Research and Innovation

We had the great chance to attend the “Indo-European Research and Innovation Partnership”. This conference was organized by the European Commission in Brussels (May 30^th, June 1^st). As described in the invitation note, “the main objective of the forthcoming conference was to mobilise Indian and European  stakeholders and define a shared EU/Member States-India strategic agenda by identifying common challenges, priority areas and instruments for future action.” 

We were invited to present the “HTech4Dev” initiative as part of the parallel session dedicated to health issues (including new pharmaceutical drugs, medical technologies and instrumentation) co-chaired by Mr. Kari Komulainen, Director, International Network, Tekes (Finland) and Dr. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller, Research and Development, Defence Research and Development Organisation (India). Several crucial issues were raised to assess the transfer to LMICs of heath technologies developed in Indian who developed state of the art technologies in this area. This could help those countries to solve health disparities among their population: contacts have been established to hopefully set up new collaborations.

The conference presentations have been posted at:
 http://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/index.cfm?pg=india-eu-conference-2012

Meeting AMREF about our project in Senegal

AMREF is an international African organization headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.

We had the great opportunity to meet with two representatives of AMREF in Paris: Dr Mor NGOM, Program Coordinator in West Africa (Senegal) and Silvia TOLVE in charge of programs in France.

We were mostly interested in their experience with telemedicine in Senegal. They used to work with the telemedicine service, part of the Minsitry of Health, and are willing to pursue their collaboration to share their experience and expertise: a reference center has been built in Dakar and several projects have been set up with local hospitals to develop e-health in the area. A convention has been prepared with the previous government and should be discussed again soon.

AMREF was also involved in the SAHEL project led by European Space Agency (ESA) in Kenya. The SAHEL project proposes an efficient cooperation between technological players (industries, operators), health stakeholders (health workers, nurses, specialists...), centers of excellence providing medical content for eLearning and NGOs for local implementation with the support of regional actors.

We agreed to collaborate on the construction of the telemedicine project in Senegal with Prof. Mbayang NDIAYE NIANG and the new Ministry of Health led by Prof. Awa Marie COLL SECK. Moreover, we plan to work together on other proposals by sharing expertise and network.

Back from Forum 2012 in Cape Town, SA

With the support from COHRED Group (Geneva), Aviesan held a session on Health Technology Transfer, as part of the Global Forum 2012. It was of course an opportunity to present HTech4Dev program and progress, but the main purpose of the session was to focus on  the necessary (contextual and pragmatic) elements  for the transfer of health technologies toward Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs).  Topics related to health technologies (infrastructure, developmental challenges, market and regulatory acceptance) were presented and discussed.   In addition, boarder topics of intellectual property, jurisdictional approaches, social acceptance and impact were presented and discussed. Thanks to all of our speakers who travelled from far away (Bangladesh, Canada, Europe and Thailand) to share with the audience their experience  in the use of new technologies to fill the gap between developed and under-developed economies. 

During the first part of the session, the orators nicely pictured the great promises of some nano-based technologies as solutions to basic human health problems. Some presenters described regional examples/challenges for the successful implementation and use of tele-medicine. An informative and enlightening lecture given by the President of the European Group on Ethics  who provided some clues on how Africa may better valorize by building an environment prone to protect Africa generated intellectual property. A presentation by WHO (World Health Organization) Assistant Director-General for ‘Innovation, Information, Evidence and Research’ detailed success, and evidenced that local production of therapeutics in Africa can be viable.  Participants from several key organizations were present and contributed to the stimulating discussions.  Representatives from IFPMA (the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Association) and WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) illustrated the specificity and challenges to be addressed on health technologies transfer in LMICs. An outstanding presentation was made by the President of the Cameroon Bioethics Initiative who explained on the African social move needed toward the acceptance of these new technologies.   

Prof Carel IJsselmuiden, Director COHRED

Judging from the level of participant’s engagement and discussions (going well beyond the scheduled time, follow-up actions and networking), the session on Health Technology Transfer was a success.  

All these presentations will be made available soon on Forum 2012 website (www.forum2012.org).

Dr Jacques Grassi, Director ITS, Aviesan

Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO Assistant Director-General

Dr François Hirsch, Aviesan ITS

Prof. Julian Kinderlerer, Cape Town University

Women and child’s health at stake in Cameroon

Prof. Dieudonné Adiogo, vice-dean of Douala Pharmaceutical School is setting up a project dedicated to Women’s Health: Monitoring and treatment of hypocalcemia and anemia on young women in Cameroon.

This project based on a new nano-diagnostic device in development will be conducted in two phases:

Phase 1: test and validation of the new test on 3000 women from the Douala surroundings with limited health care access.

Phase 2: test and implementation of the new test in remote areas of Cameroon with limited health care access.

The project will contribute to improve the women health by supplementing them in Calicum (Ca) and Iron (Fe) when needed. New born and infants will also benefit from the treatment delivered to their pregnant and nursing mothers. With a corrected level of Ca and Fe, women will feel better and will be able to work in better conditions, thus having an improved quality of life. This project should contribute both to women emancipation and life improvement. 

The pilot study will involve students from Douala University:  students in human sciences will contribute to inform, recruit and then follow up on women participating in the study; students in biology will withdraw the blood samples, perform the newly designed test in comparison to the available method and be also in charge of the data processing. A physician will be responsible for clinical examination and treatment of the patients.

After validation of the new diagnostic device in these previous steps, it will be tested for validation in other areas of Cameroon under various climate conditions. Management and continuation of this part of the project will be discussed with health authorities of the country and with WHO representatives to disseminate this new approach to other African countries.