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Co-hosted by:

Devex   Digital Connected Care Coalition   Transform Health

About the event

Strengthening health systems is no longer an issue confined to national borders, but a prerequisite for global health security and well-being. Digital technologies offer tremendous promise to reduce costs and expand global access to health care. However, actual implementation of digital health technologies remains complex and fragmented, especially in low-resource settings.​

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the weaknesses in many of the world’s health care systems — and in our ability to respond and adapt to an urgent health crisis. It has highlighted the potential for digital technologies to expand access to care, as well as the urgent need for digital transformation in low- and middle-income countries to build more resilient health systems. The pandemic has also emphasized the importance of data to respond to global health challenges and the need to safeguard individuals’ right to privacy.

To coincide with the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Devex, the Digital Connected Care Coalition, and Transform Health convened key experts and practitioners for a discussion on the future of digital health technologies in a COVID-19 world and the importance of closer coordination between digital health actors. Together, we took stock of current efforts — including lessons learned and challenges to overcome — to drive a dialogue on how we as a community can accelerate access to care and harness digital health tools to advance universal health coverage.
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The Speakers

Moderator

Catherine Cheney

Senior Reporter
Devex
Catherine Cheney is a Senior Reporter for Devex. She covers the West Coast of the U.S., focusing on the role of technology and innovation in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. And she frequently represents Devex as a speaker and moderator. Prior to joining Devex, Catherine earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University, worked as a web producer for POLITICO and reporter for World Politics Review, and helped to launch NationSwell. Catherine has reported from all over the world, and freelanced for outlets including the Atlantic and the Washington Post. She is also the West Coast ambassador for the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit that trains and connects journalists to cover responses to problems.

Dr. Anurag Agrawal

Co-Chair of the Governing Health Futures 2030 Commission
and
Director of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, India
Dr Anurag Agrawal is an Indian pulmonologist, medical researcher, and the director of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, a CSIR institution. Known for his studies on lung diseases, Dr Agrawal is a senior DBT-Wellcome Trust India Alliance fellow. He received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize, the highest Indian science award, for his contributions to Medical Sciences in 2014, as well as the National Bioscience Award for Career Development in 2015.
As the head of a national laboratory and as an elected fellow of both the major national science academies of India, Dr Agrawal is deeply engaged with the science-society interface and biomedical policy development. His current focus areas include use of information technology and big data analytics for effective application of community health efforts and development of pattern-based diagnostics. His group has also developed integrated solutions for healthcare delivery and digital data collection in resource-limited settings, as well as computational tools for visualisation and analysis of complex medical datasets.

Kalavathi GV

CTO India and Head
Philips Innovation Campus, Bengaluru, India
Kalavathi GV’s personal mission is to contribute to business transformation towards Philips being a digital and solutions company with strong focus on outcomes, as Head of Philips Innovation Campus, Bengaluru, India. She has over two decades of healthcare industry experience and before joining Philips in 2007, Kala was leading the PACS Engineering team at GE Healthcare Bangalore.
With more than a decade long career at Philips, Kala has a host of accolades and key achievements to her credit. From setting up the first Beta Site for CT Workstation and iDose products for Philips in India to leading the commercialization of PET-MR product at Philips USA, heading Global Customer Service and Operations for Healthcare Informatics Business Group, Philips USA. She has proven competence as a game changer with extensive experience in the areas of in business, product segment and engineering leadership and has led global teams handling projects that span product, solution development and delivery lifecycles.

Danielle Mullings

Young Expert
Tech 4 Health
Danielle Mullings is a multidimensional Software Engineering student with interests including technology, leadership and the arts. She currently serves as the Caribbean & Americas representative on the Young Experts Tech 4 Health youth council and is the President of the Faculty of Science and Technology Guild Committee at the University of the West Indies Mona. Said to be ‘one of the field's brightest young minds’, Danielle believes strongly in the power of tech and innovation in edifying society and would ultimately like to work in areas with civic applications of technology. She aspires to become a world leader in technological representation for the Caribbean and Latin America, focusing on enhancing the Caribbean’s pursuit of the SDGs.
Danielle is also passionate about documentary making which she sees as the gateway to cultural retention and the edification of a regional identity. She aims to advance the Caribbean's capacity to accurately represent its own stories. Lastly, she has a natural affinity for leadership and youth empowerment and thus serves on youth councils, both locally and internationally, representing the voice of young people in technology, education, national issues and tech for health.

Dr. Sabin Nsanzimana

Director General, Rwanda
Biomedical Centre
Dr. Sabin NSANZIMANA is the Director General of Rwanda Biomedical Centre. He has extensive experience in HIV program design, strategic planning, implementation, and operational research with a focus on global care and treatment of people living with HIV.
Dr. Sabin holds a Medical Degree (MD) and a Master's Degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the University of Rwanda; a PhD in Epidemiology from the Basel Institute of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel, Switzerland.
Dr. Sabin serves as a Fellow at the African Scientific Institute (ASI), a Fellow at Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCP) and serves as an adjunct Assistant Professor of Global Health Delivery at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Kigali and teaches Epidemiology and Research Methodology at the University of Rwanda.

Dr. Naveen Rao

Senior Vice President for Health
The Rockefeller Foundation
Dr. Naveen Rao is Senior Vice President of the Health Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation. He leads a team focused on advancing Precision Public Health, which empowers community health workers with actionable insights from data and analytic tools to accelerate progress on health outcomes in their communities. Launched in September 2019, the Precision Public Health initiative builds off the Foundation’s legacy on Universal Health Coverage to ensure that communities everywhere receive the right care at the right time.
Dr. Rao is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Medic Mobile and represents The Rockefeller Foundation on the Private Foundation constituency of Global Fund ATM.

Dykki Settle

Chief Digital Officer; Director, Center of Digital and Data Excellence (CoDE)
PATH
Dykki Settle has more than 25 years of experience in leadership and development of digital technology, data systems, and their enabling environments in more than 20 countries and global organizations. Mr. Settle is PATH’s Chief Digital Officer and Director of PATH’s Center of Digital and Data Excellence, setting digital transformation strategy for the organization and leading more than 80 staff to deliver a global portfolio of digital and data projects and investments.
Mr. Settle is a Commissioner on the Lancet/Financial Times Governing Health Futures 2030 Commission, exploring the convergence of digital health, artificial intelligence (AI) and other frontier technologies with universal health coverage (UHC) to support attainment of the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). He also chairs the board of Digital Square, the USAID/BMGF-funded PATH-led flagship global project for digital health supporting more than 40 implementing partners and over 20 open source software global goods used by almost every country in Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Nicole Spieker

Quality Director and Director East Africa
PharmAccess Foundation
Nicole Spieker is Quality Director and Director East Africa of PharmAccess Foundation. PharmAccess is a Dutch not-for-profit organization dedicated to the strengthening of health systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Working with local public and private partners, PharmAccess’ mission is to create access to affordable, quality healthcare for low income groups.
This is achieved through the introduction of standards, the creation of health insurance systems, the provision of affordable loans to private clinics and research and learning. She is managing director of SafeCare. SafeCare was started in 2010 by the PharmAccess (Netherlands), the Joint Commission International (JCI, U.S.A) and COHSASA (South Africa). The SafeCare approach is based on internationally acknowledged (ISQua) quality standards and dissects the improvement process of healthcare providers in survey-able, measurable steps. The program is operational in four countries in over 2500 facilities with public and private sector partners amongst which Lagos State of Nigeria and the MoH&SW in Tanzania.

Office Cat

Mouse Catcher
Quarantine land
And both of these, if one would tell the truth, were foreordained unto the holy place, where greatest Peter’s follower hath his seat. While on this quest, for which thou giv’st him praise, he heard the things which of his victory the causes were, and of the Papal Robe. The Chosen Vessel went there afterward, to bring thence confirmation in the faith, through which one enters on salvation’s path. But why should I go there, or who concedes it? I ’m not Aeneas, nor yet Paul am I; me worthy of this, nor I nor others deem. If, therefore, I consent to come, I fear lest foolish be my coming; thou art wise, and canst much better judge than I can talk.”

Office Cat

Mouse Catcher
Quarantine land
And both of these, if one would tell the truth, were foreordained unto the holy place, where greatest Peter’s follower hath his seat. While on this quest, for which thou giv’st him praise, he heard the things which of his victory the causes were, and of the Papal Robe. The Chosen Vessel went there afterward, to bring thence confirmation in the faith, through which one enters on salvation’s path. But why should I go there, or who concedes it? I ’m not Aeneas, nor yet Paul am I; me worthy of this, nor I nor others deem. If, therefore, I consent to come, I fear lest foolish be my coming; thou art wise, and canst much better judge than I can talk.”

Office Cat

Mouse Catcher
Quarantine land
And both of these, if one would tell the truth, were foreordained unto the holy place, where greatest Peter’s follower hath his seat. While on this quest, for which thou giv’st him praise, he heard the things which of his victory the causes were, and of the Papal Robe. The Chosen Vessel went there afterward, to bring thence confirmation in the faith, through which one enters on salvation’s path. But why should I go there, or who concedes it? I ’m not Aeneas, nor yet Paul am I; me worthy of this, nor I nor others deem. If, therefore, I consent to come, I fear lest foolish be my coming; thou art wise, and canst much better judge than I can talk.”

Office Cat

Mouse Catcher
Quarantine land
And both of these, if one would tell the truth, were foreordained unto the holy place, where greatest Peter’s follower hath his seat. While on this quest, for which thou giv’st him praise, he heard the things which of his victory the causes were, and of the Papal Robe. The Chosen Vessel went there afterward, to bring thence confirmation in the faith, through which one enters on salvation’s path. But why should I go there, or who concedes it? I ’m not Aeneas, nor yet Paul am I; me worthy of this, nor I nor others deem. If, therefore, I consent to come, I fear lest foolish be my coming; thou art wise, and canst much better judge than I can talk.”

Office Cat

Mouse Catcher
Quarantine land
And both of these, if one would tell the truth, were foreordained unto the holy place, where greatest Peter’s follower hath his seat. While on this quest, for which thou giv’st him praise, he heard the things which of his victory the causes were, and of the Papal Robe. The Chosen Vessel went there afterward, to bring thence confirmation in the faith, through which one enters on salvation’s path. But why should I go there, or who concedes it? I ’m not Aeneas, nor yet Paul am I; me worthy of this, nor I nor others deem. If, therefore, I consent to come, I fear lest foolish be my coming; thou art wise, and canst much better judge than I can talk.”
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