Chair: Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Jomo Kwame Sundaram writes on economic development challenges, was an economics professor until 2004 and Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development in the United Nations system during 2005-2015. He received the Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought in 2007. He is also an advisory board member of the Independent Panel on Global Governance for Health.
Speakers
Megan Zweig, "A Market Update on Digital Health"
More venture capital is being poured into US-based digital health startups than ever before. Meanwhile, all major healthcare players are "going digital," figuring out how to leverage the external innovation provided by startups to advance their strategy. Megan will offer analysis of funding trends over the years, and how this maps to the maturation of the digital health ecosystem. She'll also discuss the exit market and of course, the impact these solutions are having on the efficiency, quality, and experience of care.
Megan leads research and marketing at Rock Health, an early-stage digital health venture fund. She equips entrepreneurs, investors, and enterprise leaders with data-driven insights on the digital health landscape so they can make smarter business decisions that advance innovation. Her recent research has focused on the digital health venture funding landscape, AI and machine learning, digital therapeutics, and startup innovation for substance use disorder. Prior to joining Rock Health, Megan worked at The Advisory Board Company, where she led the Physician Executive Council, a best practice research membership supporting Chief Medical Officers at over 1,300 hospitals and health systems nationwide. Megan graduated cum laude from Duke University, where she earned a B.A. in Public Policy Studies with a focus on health policy. She is currently receiving an executive MBA at Berkeley Haas.
Susan Sell, “The financialization of health and the financing of new technologies”
21st century capitalism is increasingly financialized; financial markets play an outsized role in everything from corporate governance, innovation and health. To what extent does financialized capitalism reduce or exacerbate health inequalities? It has posed real challenges for the achievement of Universal Health Care. How has it fared in innovation policies for health? How has it served to promote innovation in medical technologies, biotechnology and drug development? Is financialized capitalism creating value or extracting it? How can the system become better aligned with public health provision?
Susan K. Sell is Professor at the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University, and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. She earned her PhD in Political Science at the University of California – Berkeley. She has written a number of books on intellectual property and international political economy, co-edited one on global governance and has published widely on these topics in political science and law journals. Most recently she co-edited a special issue of the Review of International Political Economy on “The Global Political Economy of Health”.
Discussant: Ayanda Ntsaluba
Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba is Executive Director of Discovery Holdings in South Africa. Ntsaluba holds a medical degree from the University of Natal, specialised in Obstetrics and Gynecology, a MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from the University of London, and an Executive MBA from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Cape Town. Previously, Ntsaluba has served as Director-General of Health in South Africa (September 1998 - August 2003) and as Director-General of Foreign Affairs of South Africa (2003-2011). During his time in office he coordinated South Africa’s participation in the Foreign Policy and Global Health Initiative and he also served on one of the working groups of the WHO Commission on Macro Economics and Health. Ntsaluba was member of The Lancet – University of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health from 2011-2014.