With so many innovations addressing the challenges posed by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a platform that will curate the best solutions available is needed to help stakeholders and authorities quickly identify options to weather health emergencies, a working paper published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.
Setting up such a platform becomes urgent given expectations that another public health crisis will come, according to the paper, Public Health Innovations for COVID-19: Finding, Trusting, and Scaling Innovation.
“We need innovative tools and skills to mobilize society and government during this crucial time and beyond. We need to improve the curation of relevant innovations and knowledge, and overcome fragmentation of platform and sources. Based on the preliminary work done for this issue, a brief ‘living’ platform needs to be created to share knowledge, exchange experiences, search for solutions, mobilize financing, and connect demand and supply,” the paper said.
Quick access to solutions
“With its help, stakeholders and policy makers will finally be able to quickly identify challenges, consult with industry leaders to appreciate trends in new solutions, and identify fit-for-purpose innovative solutions in their respective countries’ health-care setting. They will no longer be asking which tools might be suitable for solving a specific challenge. They will have quick access to innovative solutions for similar challenges in similar country contexts, learn faster from lessons learned by other countries, understand which solutions failed and which worked, and know what foundations need to be in place in a health system to quickly scale innovative solutions.”
The paper said the innovative solutions that have surfaced since the pandemic must be structured to guide the user through the new world of advances and data management tools. “Testing, iterating, improving, implementing, and scaling—but also failing—must be carefully managed and informed by evidence. In the long run, ‘fit-for-purpose’ innovative solutions should be identified for each country’s health care setting.”
The paper said the platform may be divided into subcategories of problems and challenges and their related innovations, digital and non-digital, by region and country.
Collaboration
The platform will also serve as a space for health ministry policy makers, local governments, public health practitioners, academia, civil society, the private sector, and regulators to collaborate on identifying key problems that require public health innovation. It will help to reach a connected problem-solving process across disciplines and serve as the core of a new, innovation-driven global health partnership between public, private, academic, philanthropic, and civil society actors.
The platform should also be the source of trustworthy information, evidence, and examples for policy makers, technical advisors, and practitioners in an increasingly complex world, the paper’s authors said.
“This future public health innovation platform will underline once more what finally got obvious to international health actors through the COVID-19 pandemic: public health innovation is an important public good. It is an investment that will pay off to protect economies and, first and foremost, lives.”
Starting point
Innovations presented in the paper can serve as the starting point for the platform, the authors said.
The paper noted solutions focused on tools for surveillance, supply chain management, clinical trials, diagnosis, communication, and developing vaccines. These have been supplemented by research collaboration platforms, isolation and hospital upgrading novelties, as well as risk stratification resources.
It noted that many innovative solutions have emerged in surveillance, testing and diagnosis, and communication since all three are crucial for handling an early outbreak. The paper also examined several of the solutions that have proven effective.
The paper was authored by Martina Merten, an ADB consultant; Susann Roth, principal knowledge sharing and services specialist for the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department at ADB; and Fazilah Shaik Allaudin, senior deputy director of the Planning Division, Ministry of Health, Malaysia.
