Global health leaders gather at MU-led UN digital health symposium

Left to right: Dr Mangal Rawal, Vice Chancellor of the Academy of Health Sciences in Nepal; Tamar Thompson, Vice President and Head of Corporate Affairs, Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease; MU President Professor Eeva Leinonen; Professor Martin Curley of MU’s Innovation Value Institute and Dr Durhane Wong-Rieger, President and CEO at Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders

Global leaders from across the health, tech and pharma sectors gathered at the 4th United Nations General Assembly Digital Health Symposium in New York to share insights, practices and developments in a bid to speed up the digital transition of the global healthcare system.

The Symposium, organised by Maynooth University’s Innovation Value Institute in partnership with CHIME (College of Healthcare Information Management Executives), Fordham University and Northwell Health, was opened by MU President, Professor Eeva Leinonen on Tuesday. It was the fourth gathering of its kind convened by MU’s Prof Martin Curley and brings together 150 leaders from across the sector to strategise, synthesise and speed up the global digital health transition.

Opening the event, Professor Eeva Leinonen said: “Maynooth University, through the Innovation Value Institute, is honoured to convene such an extraordinary gathering of global leaders in digital health. This year’s symposium, with contributors from the World Health Organization, International Council of Nurses, Northwell Health, and leading voices from health, technology, and academia, highlights the critical importance of collaboration in tackling global healthcare challenges.

“As we look to the future, these discussions shape our vision for healthcare education, including the launch of Ireland’s newest School of Nursing at Maynooth, where digital health will be central to preparing the next generation of healthcare leaders.” 

Prof Martin Curley of the IVI speaking at the event 

More than 50 speakers will address the symposium which runs over three days from September 24-26, sharing their findings and insights in an immersive environment designed to accelerate progress on UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 which aims to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”.

At the Symposium, Prof Martin Curley will present empirical evidence for what has become known as ‘Curley’s Law’, whereby digital and data innovations introduced into health deliver 10 times benefits, including better care, lower cost, better equity and experience. The evidence of this observational law has come from a network of digital health living labs in Ireland and beyond.

Five organisations will also present their solutions and evidence supporting this digital and data innovations approach. They include Danish medical equipment manufacturer Ventriject, Nasdaq-listed US medical technology company HeartSciences, OpenEMR Foundation which supports the world’s most popular open source electronic health record, Digicare, an Irish-based medication management system provider and Syncrophi, an Irish-based Point of Care software provider.

Prof Curley said: “We see a tremendous opportunity by working in a ‘directed-open collaborative ecosystem’ configuration to dramatically accelerate the progress toward UN SDG3 – good health for all. I am inspired and thankful for the calibre and number of global leaders joining in person and confident that we can drive a leapfrog effect in global health systems using digital technologies.”

He added: “Healthcare challenges globally cannot be fixed with marginal gains. They need technologies and solutions that deliver 10X improvements across patient outcomes, cost and workforce efficiency.”

Left to right: Professor Pam Cipriano, President, International Council of Nurses, Professor Martin Curley of MU’s IVI and MU President, Professor Eeva Leinonen

Prof Matt Mullarkey of the University of South Florida said: “The simultaneous adoption of Curley’s Law implemented through a Design Doing ™ approach will lead to a leapfrog in health system performance and outcomes. The hospital-at-home initiative at Tampa General Hospital being presented at the symposium is a great example of this iterative, guided, emergent design-with-patients process while experimenting with and integrating state-of-shelf technologies.”

The symposium, which featured an opening keynote address from Israeli-American economist Oded Galor, Professor of Economics at Brown University, on learning lessons from the journey of humanity, also includes a fireside chat with leading digital health innovator Dr Yeuk Fan Ng, discussing how the use of digital and data has made Singapore the number one ranked health system in the world.

Key digital health leaders such as Dr John Sheehan, Richard Jones, Jan Beger and Prof Falguni Sen will discuss the transformative power of artificial intelligence when applied to health and medicine at Fordham University’s Lincoln Centre in Manhattan on Thursday. Other digital leaders from around the world who will address the symposium include Russ Branzell, the CEO and President of CHIME, Dr Amad Ahmed of the NHS in the UK, UAE’s Dr Osama el Hassan, WHO’s Derrick Muneene and Nepal’s Dr Mangal Rawal.

Ryl Jensen, CEO of New Zealand’s Digital Health Association and symposium co-chair said: “This is such a unique opportunity for global leaders in digital health to drive forward progress toward UN SDG3 Good Health for all. It’s a privilege to be a part of this important movement.”

Selected recordings of the symposium will be available from the Innovation Value Institute and CHIME.

Dr John Sheehan, Clinical Director and Radiologist, Blackrock Health; Dr Mangal Rawal, Vice Chancellor, Academy of Health Sciences in Nepal; MU President Prof Eeva Leinonen and Prof Katia Passerini, Provost and Senior Executive Vice President, Seton Hall University