Continuing innovations in health and medicine have led to economic growth and a better quality of life for many around the world. But inequalities could grow rapidly.
Innovation and policies related to it are no longer solely the reserve of wealthy countries, as we have seen in more than a decade of the Global Innovation Index (GII). Innovators in developing economies show the world how to do more with less.
In India (52), for example, one company has found a way to use accessible technology for early diagnosis of a malady that often strikes premature babies and can blind them if not caught in time.
Rather than bringing expensive, complicated equipment to the Indian countryside, Remidio connects compact devices with a smartphone to diagnose retinopathy and enable speedy treatment for babies in far-flung regions.
Innovation transcends the tech sector, another example being the Eye Mitra programme, which uses a unique business model to finance healthcare at the base of the pyramid.
We have also seen impressive innovation examples with the use of drones to dispatch blood samples and medicines in Rwanda (94) and tele-care in large countries such as China (14).
Healthcare represents an increasingly important share of the global innovation ecosystem, which is why the theme of this year’s GII is “Creating Healthy Lives – The Future of Medical Innovation”.
A collaboration between INSEAD, Cornell University and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the GII measures a country’s innovation performance based both on its innovation inputs (such as its regulatory environment, higher education, R&D…
