The Institute of Global Health Innovation, launched at Imperial on Monday 4 October, will be chaired by the surgical pioneer Professor Lord Ara Darzi.
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Imperial College London News Release
Monday 4 October 2010
The pioneer of robotic surgery and former health minister Professor Lord Ara Darzi is taking the helm of an institute at Imperial College London that aims to develop innovative approaches to global health challenges. The Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI), which is being launched today, will bring together world-leading academics in medical science, engineering, business and health policy to improve people’s health and reduce health inequalities in developed and developing countries.
The IGHI will build upon Imperial’s expertise in global health and incorporate the College’s world-renowned strengths in technological innovation and multidisciplinary working. It will work closely with governments, NGOs and business to ensure that innovations in healthcare and health policy have a significant impact across the world.
IGHI Chairman Professor Ara Darzi and Deputy Chairman Professor Guang-Zhong Yang
Professor Darzi has consistently been at the forefront of surgical innovation. He and his colleagues are credited with pioneering the use of minimally invasive and robot-assisted surgery in the UK. Professor Darzi has also helped develop new training methods that involve the use of virtual reality to allow surgeons to practice their skills. In addition, he has been heavily involved in World Health Organisation initiatives to improve the safety of surgical patients across the world. From 2007 to 2009 he was Parliamentary Under Secretary in the UK Department of Health.
Professor Darzi, the Chairman of the IGHI at Imperial College London, said: “Healthcare systems all over the world are facing completely different pressures compared with 20 years ago. Life expectancy has increased dramatically, lifestyle diseases such as obesity are rife, and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes are increasingly becoming a problem in developing countries as well as in the West. We can’t just build more hospitals or buy more beds; the whole way in which we provide healthcare has got to change. The world is crying out for low cost, high impact technologies that can be employed widely across the globe.
“Imperial’s track record in coming up with major discoveries in medicine and engineering is unquestioned, but for those breakthroughs to have a real impact, they need to feed into policy. I’ve had a particular interest in policy for the last four or five years and I understand the different sorts of challenges facing us in healthcare across the world. I think the solutions are there, and the Institute of Global Health Innovation will provide us with a platform to make that change happen and to have that impact globally.”
The IGHI’s Deputy Chairman, Professor Guang-Zhong Yang, brings to the global health arena a wealth of expertise in engineering, having spent his career developing new medical and sensor technologies. One of his current projects is to develop miniature wireless sensors that can be worn on the body to monitor a patient’s health remotely. Such devices, he points out, will be useful for developed countries with burgeoning elderly populations as well as in deprived countries where healthcare services are limited.
“State-of-the-art technology does not have to be expensive, and innovation should not be just for the West,” Professor Yang said. “Our challenge is to find common ground for innovation, so we can develop safe, effective and accessible technologies that can benefit people in both developed and developing countries.”
Research at the IGHI will also seek to develop innovative systems for training medics and improving patient safety using low-cost methods. Professor Darzi has already pioneered the use of surgical safety checklists that are proven to lower the risk of harmful outcomes for patients. Improving access to information and training for doctors in resource-poor settings is a challenge that he believes the new institute is ideally placed to tackle.
“Technology is the means to the end; it’s not the end,” he said. “We need the right business models around technologies to make them sustainable in any healthcare system, whether it’s in Africa or in Scotland.”
Professor Sir Keith O’Nions, Rector of Imperial College London, said: “Imperial has always striven to apply our research for the benefit of people’s health internationally. The Institute of Global Health Innovation takes our expertise in medicine and combines it with the other essential ingredients such as engineering, business and health policy to focus on reducing health inequalities worldwide. I’m simply delighted to have an outstanding innovator of Ara Darzi’s calibre to lead the Institute, and I have no doubt that under his stewardship the IGHI will have a tremendous impact on global health.”
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Sam Wong
Research Media Officer
Imperial College London
email: sam.wong@imperial.ac.uk
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Notes to editors:
1. Biographical information
Professor The Lord Darzi of Denham, KBE, PC, FmedSci, HonFREng is the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery, Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London.
From 2007-2009 Lord Darzi was Parliamentary Under-Secretary in the Department of Health. In government he led a major review of the NHS which was followed by publication of his report ‘High Quality Care For All'.
Lord Darzi was appointed a Privy Councillor in 2009, knighted for his services to medicine and surgery in 2002, and is currently an Honorary Consultant Surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. He joined Imperial College London in 1994.
Professor Guang-Zhong Yang is Chair in Medical Image Computing, Department of Computing and Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London.
Professor Yang joined Imperial College London in 1999 and he is Director and Founder of the Royal Society/Wolfson Medical Image Computing Laboratory, co-founder of the Wolfson Surgical Technology Laboratory, and co-founder of the Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery. He is a research director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. Combinin g technological innovation and clinical translation, Professor Yang's research is developing safe, effective, and accessible techno logies for both developed and developing countries, including the development of pervasive sensing and body sensor network technologies. He is a recipient of the Royal Society Wolfson Research M erit Award and the I.I. Rabi Award from the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
2. About Imperial College L ondon
Consistently rated amongst the world's best universities, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 14,000 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and business, delivering practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.
Since its foundation in 1907, Imperial's contributions to society have included the discovery of penicillin, the development of holography and the foundations of fibre optics. This commitment to the application of research for the benefit of all continues today, with current focuses including interdisciplinary collaborations to improve global health, tackle climate change, develop sustainable sources of energy and address security challenges.
In 2007, Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust formed the UK's first Academic Health Science Centre. This unique partnership aims to improve the quality of life of patients and populations by taking new discoveries and translating them into new therapies as quickly as possible.
Website: www.imperial.ac.uk
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