“Aha” moments at Davos

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Steve Davis

PATH CEO Steve Davis reflects on cross-sector collaboration, new technologies, and social media.

I recently returned from the snowy streets of Davos, Switzerland, where I bumped into world leaders bouncing between panels, speeches, meetings, and parties at the World Economic Forum. The forum turned out to be a great venue for me to advance PATH’s mission.

I went to Davos with some concerns about the elitism of the event and its location—a quaint ski town in the Alps with the tightest security I’ve ever seen—but I wanted to put the opportunity to practical use to further PATH’s work to ensure global health equity by taking innovation to scale. I was able to discuss our innovation commitments to family planning with an African health minister, meet with the leader of a pharmaceutical company with whom we’re advancing vaccine development, and host a dinner with the CEOs of some of the largest nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the world—all in the course of a few hours.

Our time has come

The discussions held over the five-day event also helped to galvanize my thinking about the future of NGOs and global health. Let me share two “aha” moments.

First, Davos reaffirmed my belief that the only way we can solve the toughest challenges of the 21st century is through collaboration across sectors—nonprofit, for-profit, public, and academic. I’ve spent my life championing cross-sector collaboration, and PATH and other change agents are forging the way, taking advantage of each sector’s capabilities and assets to save even more lives. I now believe that the time for this innovation model has come.

At Davos, I saw an emerging understanding that NGOs have become complex strategic, operational, and financial businesses that play an integral part in addressing the world’s biggest problems and creating sustainable futures for our kids. For example, I moderated a panel of business, government, and foundation leaders, called “Catalysing Markets Through Philanthropy,” where we explored the growing variety and complexity of financing models. Private, civil society, and government players are engaging in exciting and creative ways to support social innovation around the world.

You can watch two panelists (and yours truly) share their “tweet” versions of this cross-sector convergence in this short video from the Accenture Development Partnerships Executive Roundtable.

Also check out the World Economic Forum report The Future Role of Civil Society, which provides terrific insight into the blurring lines between the sectors and how our businesses operate.

Global health in the digital age

My second “aha” moment was around the power of new technologies and social media—particularly when used by youth and previously disconnected communities—to change the world in ways we aren’t even able to imagine. These tools are being used to disrupt established paradigms and bypass the usual “gatekeepers” to be a positive force for change.

For example, in one session, we discussed how better tools and sophisticated business platforms are advancing our ability to reach new audiences, gain new data, overcome old barriers, and energize change. In another, I learned about the vast digital infrastructure that underlies demonstrations and movements in places like India, Egypt, and the UK. While these tools are mostly deployed by political and advocacy organizations, I kept imagining what it would be like if we used them to overcome inequities in health. Could social media help us reach the six-month-old girl in a remote village who needs lifesaving vaccines or treatment for diarrheal disease? How might crowdsourcing change the way we approach behavior change or health data management? And how will deeply engaging young people, with their different world view on the use of technologies, change the global health and development landscape as we know it?

I am glad to be back home, focused on family, work, and putting our global partners and relationships into action in concrete ways. But the chance to expand my thinking—and our network of thought and business partners—to reshape the work ahead, will stay with me far longer than the suntan from the slopes of Davos.

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Learning from contraceptives

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Kathleen Donnelly

Since it’s Valentine’s Day, let’s talk about romance. Or at least sex.

“We talk about this all the time on our teams,” says Maggie Kilbourne-Brook, a program officer in our Technology Solutions Global Program who in more than 25 years at PATH has helped develop and test reproductive health technologies that include the Woman’s Condom and the SILCS diaphragm. “What do women want? What do men want? What are they willing to do to protect themselves, even in the heat of the moment? What will make protected sex more fun?”

With questions like these at the top of her mind, Maggie’s the perfect person for the Valentine’s Day edition of our blog series, Good Question. So we asked her: what have you learned from testing contraceptives?

Maggie: There are at least two parts to that question—what have we learned when we’ve tested contraceptives products and what do we learn from women and men who test our prototypes?

The Woman’s Condom. Photo: PATH/Glenn Austin.

We learned lots about the importance of small things during the design development of our Woman’s Condom. For example, when we started using foam as a retention feature to hold the pouch in the vagina, it started out as a foam cap at the end of the pouch. But as prototypes evolved women kept asking to make the foam smaller and smaller to get it out of the way.

Eventually, we settled on four small foam shapes that hold the pouch in the vagina. We even compared various types of foam using an electron microscope to find out which type of cell structure has the greatest likelihood of sticking to the vaginal wall. And we got it right. The foam shapes on the outside of the Woman’s Condom pouch work. In clinical studies women and their partners like that the pouch doesn’t move or make noise.

Rigors of diaphragm testing

I’ve worked with a lot of women and researchers who evaluated prototypes of the SILCS diaphragm to make it easy to use and comfortable for both partners. The neat thing about this one-size-fits-most device is that a woman won’t need a fitting exam to figure out which size she should wear.

The SILCS diaphragm. Photo: PATH/Glenn Austin.

Testing a barrier device that rests inside the vagina, we have to do some interesting studies. For the barrier effectiveness study of the SILCS plus contraceptive gel, women agreed to have sex with the device in place, then return to the clinic within two hours so a clinician could test fluid in the vagina and on the cervical side of the diaphragm to see whether any forwardly motile sperm crossed the barrier. Our clinical partner, CONRAD, implemented this study at their research sites.

You can imagine it takes a special woman—and man—to be willing participate in a study like this one.

Take-home message

Through these projects, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to family planning providers and women in many countries share intimate feedback about the products, as well as about their lives and relationships. And I’ve learned that women’s dreams aren’t that different in different countries, no matter what their economic group or age. They want a loving relationship with their partner. They want their children to be healthy. And they also want to be protected.

More information

•   Our work in woman-initiated protection
•   Our work in reproductive health
•   CONRAD website

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Breast cancer: a global health issue

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Guest Contributor

Guest contributor Amie Bishop is a senior program director at PATH who leads our efforts to address breast cancer.

On World Cancer Day last week, I attended a global summit convened by the new international division of one of the most prominent breast cancer advocacy groups in the United States, Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Yes, the international division. The group’s increased focus on women outside of the United States signals, I believe, a rising call: it’s time for the global health community to do something about breast cancer, a scourge that is perceived—incorrectly—as largely a worry for women in wealthier countries.

The meeting was star-powered, serious, and heart-wrenching. Data and stories from around the world made clear that addressing breast and cervical cancer in low- and middle-income countries is a moral imperative of our time, no less important than the commitment years ago to turn back the epidemic of HIV in hardest-hit countries.

Cancer is the biggest killer

Consider this: cancer today accounts for more deaths worldwide than tuberculosis, HIV, and malaria combined. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women—it will afflict an estimated 9.1 million women in poorer countries over the next decade. Of the 5 million women expected to die from breast cancer in the next decade, 70 percent will live in low- and middle-income countries.

Three women, wearing matching blue vests and nametags, link arms and smile for the camera. Photo: PATH/Tara Hayes Constant.

Peruvian health promotoras educate women about breast cancer. Photo: PATH/Tara Hayes Constant.

Due to lack of services, poor access to the care that might exist, and scant information about breast health, women in poorer countries are far more likely to progress to advanced disease than women in the United States and Europe. In Uganda, more than half of women with breast cancer are diagnosed with advanced cases. In Kenya, the percentage is nearly all women diagnosed. Late diagnosis vastly reduces their chances of survival. And tragically, the women destined to die often lack access to palliative care, including medication that, for pennies, could relieve their suffering. Continue reading »

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In the news: failure teaches, too

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Claire Hudson

In the last few decades, we’ve made amazing progress in global health—and those of us who work in this field do like to talk about it. Without these stories, after all, the challenges of improving health and life seem insurmountable. But as Sam Lowenberg argued in the New York Times last week, we can learn from our failures, too. His commentary is especially fitting in a week that brought news of disappointing results from a tuberculosis vaccine trial and analysis of Bill Gates’ call for more careful and considered use of data and measurement to judge what’s working.

Learning from failure

The New York Times, February 1, 2013

Americans love success stories. Go to the websites of the United States Agency for International Development, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, or a plethora of global health and development organizations, and you’ll find articles, charts and videos documenting their triumphs and innovations, with the promise of more on the way.

Beyond simply doing good, there’s an impetus to show success: nongovernmental organizations, contractors, and researchers want a good track record, funding officials must show they are spending wisely, and journal editors want to highlight breakthroughs. But “success stories” are rarely the whole story.

Read the article.

What researchers can learn from a failed TB vaccine trial

Woman wearing mask over her mouth and nose sits on a bench in a corridor.

A woman waits at a hospital for tuberculosis patients in Vietnam. Photo: Nguyen Ba Quang.

TIME, February 4, 2013

A vaccine designed to protect infants against tuberculosis (TB) isn’t as effective as researchers had hoped. The MVA85A shot, which contains a large snippet of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium, couldn’t mount a strong enough immune response in babies to protect them from infection.

Read the article.

10 key takeaways from Bill Gates’ letter

Mashable, January 31, 2013

Bill Gates’ 2013 Annual Letter highlighted the power of data and measurement to help lift the world’s most needy up from poverty…”In previous annual letters, I’ve focused a lot on the power of innovation to reduce hunger, poverty, and disease,” Gates writes, explaining this year’s focus. “But any innovation—whether it’s a new vaccine or an improved seed—can’t have an impact unless it reaches the people who will benefit from it. That’s why in this year’s letter I discuss how innovations in measurement are critical to finding new, effective ways to deliver these tools and services to the clinics, family farms, and classrooms that need them.”

Read the article.

And now, back to a success story of another sort, from our PATH colleague and new mother Lauren Newhouse, writing on our sister blog at DefeatDD.

Got milk?

Defeatdd Blog, February 5, 2013

“The antibodies in your breast milk have prevented any serious illness.” At those words from the pediatrician, I pulled my head out of my hands, astonished.

There I was doubled up in the corner of the doctor’s office with a 104°F fever, a mask covering my face, and the worst stomach virus I had ever had. Yet, my two-month old son, who had been exposed to the same gut-wrenching bug, was lying on the exam table smiling and cooing. It seemed impossible that this tiny baby, whose immune system was not yet fully developed, could stave off what my mature immune system could not.

Read the article.

Posted in Diarrheal disease, Featured posts, Maternal and child health, Tuberculosis | Leave a comment

Female condoms are: your next film project

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Kathleen Donnelly

OK, here’s the pitch:

Fill in the blank. Enter our film contest.

It’s the mid-1990s and rates of HIV infection in women are climbing. Condoms can help protect everyone from the virus, but in a lot of cases, only the men control who uses them. So, a couple of young scientists—we’re thinking Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lawrence—decide to improve a tool that could benefit all of humankind. Cut to the lab, where they’re tirelessly working out ways to make the tool better. Pan to the attractive couples they recruit to test it out. Close-up to reveal their great idea…it’s a unique kind of condom! For women!

It’s MacGyver meets Sleepless in Seattle! It’s a mashup of Friends with Benefits and Bill Nye, the Science Guy!

It’s your next film—possibly—if you enter the Female Condoms Are _____ film contest. Continue reading »

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HPV vaccine for more families

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Dr. Jacqueline Sherris

Dr. Jacqueline Sherris is vice president of Global Programs at PATH. She was the first director of PATH’s HPV Vaccines: Evidence for Impact project.

Photograph of a poster with a woman, girl, and man with text reading, "Prevent cancer of the cervix. Ensure your daughter in primary five (P.5) is vaccinated against HPV." "

A poster urges Ugandans to vaccinate their daughters against HPV. Photo: PATH/Robin Biellik.

You may not know it, but most likely you’ve been infected with HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer, at some time in your life.

Most of us are infected with human papillomavirus within a few years of becoming sexually active, but because most infections clear up on their own, it never bothers us. For about 10 percent of infected women, however, precancer develops. And if that’s not treated, some of them will suffer—and perhaps die—from advanced cervical cancer.

I have talked with doctors all over the world who care for women in advanced stages of this disease and they have told me of the dreadful suffering these women experience, and the grief and helplessness their families feel. Yet cervical cancer is an almost fully preventable disease.

Vaccines save lives

Screening adult women for precancer is vitally important—one of my colleagues blogged about that a few weeks ago. And since 2006 we’ve had new preventive tools—safe and effective HPV vaccines.

That’s what I’m excited about. Today—World Cancer Day—the GAVI Alliance, an international organization that helps ensure children everywhere have access to new, lifesaving vaccines, made a long-awaited announcement. The group will subsidize HPV vaccine for eight low-income countries in Africa and Asia. This is something to celebrate because 88 percent of cervical cancer deaths happen in countries that are unable to pay the full cost of providing the vaccine themselves. Continue reading »

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Lady Sybil, Bill Gates, and other newsmakers

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Claire Hudson

This week’s roundup brings us as close as we get to celebrity news on the PATH Blog, albeit celebrity news of a serious sort. Bill Gates has released his fifth Annual Letter outlining his thoughts on global health. This year, he focuses on how we measure the impact of our work to improve lives. As he points out, it doesn’t sound sexy, but it’s crucial if we’re to achieve greater progress. As for Lady Sybil from the popular series “Downton Abbey,” get ready for a spoiler that might also inform you about a condition that is still a major cause of maternal deaths.

My annual letter: how we measure impact to improve lives

Impatient Optimists, January 30, 2013

Today I am launching my Annual Letter. This year, I concentrate on the power of clear goals and accurate measurement—simple concepts really—to improve the lives of the poorest people around the globe. It may not be the sexiest of themes, but the proof of its impact is undeniable. The lives of the poorest have improved more rapidly in the last 15 years than ever before. During that time, the number of people living in extreme poverty has been reduced by half—extraordinary progress in a short period of time.

Read the article.

Lady Sybil’s shocking death. Did it have to happen?

Washington Post, January 28, 2013

Eclampsia still kills women during childbirth. Prenatal care can help. Photo: PATH/Amy MacIver.

Most of the viewers of “Downton Abbey” who saw Lady Sybil die in childbirth Sunday night were left with a long list of questions accompanying their shock and grief. What did she die of? Was the diagnosis clear? Could she have been saved? In a show with punctilious art direction, how realistic was this death?

Lady Sybil died of eclampsia, a condition of unknown cause that used to be called “toxemia of pregnancy.”

Read the article.

Should you get the HPV vaccine?

Slate, January 25, 2013

The human papillomavirus has the dubious distinction of being the sexually transmitted disease you are most likely to get. It’s also the leading cause of cervical cancer. January has, somewhat arbitrarily, been dubbed Cervical Health Awareness Month (also National Hobby Month and Hot Tea Month, Continue reading »

Posted in Cervical cancer, Maternal and child health | Leave a comment

Banking on breast milk, and you

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Kathleen Donnelly

For babies, breast milk is the one and only super food. It provides all of the energy, nutrients, and fluids they need during their first six months of life as well as antibodies that help keep them free from illness. When a mother’s milk is unavailable, donated breast milk can be a lifesaver—especially for babies who are premature, very small, severely malnourished, orphaned, or born to mothers who are HIV-positive.

When mothers are unable to breastfeed, donated milk can be a lifesaver. Photo: PATH/Amy MacIver.

In South Africa, one heart-wrenching effect of the HIV epidemic is the number of babies who need donated breast milk. In response, hospitals are asking for urgent expansion of a simple, inexpensive system developed by PATH, the University of Washington, and the Human Milk Banking Association of South Africa. The system uses mobile phones to manage heat pasteurization of donated breast milk. Continue reading »

Posted in About PATH, Family planning, Featured posts, Maternal and child health, Nutrition, Tuberculosis | Leave a comment

This week’s good news/bad news

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Claire Hudson

Our reading this week brought us a stark mix of good news/bad news. In Forbes, a Merck executive put forth ideas on how the public, private, and nonprofit sectors can bring lifesaving commodities to women and children (good news), while the BBC reported new findings showing the recession has hit women and girls especially hard (decidedly bad). Back on the good news side: the number of women who contract cervical cancer is likely to drop in the years ahead, and researchers reported on the mechanism that allows malaria to gain a foothold in the body.

Building a thriving marketplace for lifesaving commodities

Forbes, January 22, 2013

Woman with baby on her back and a young girl standing at a railing.

Collaboration between the public and private sectors could lead to better access to health supplies that aid women and children. Photo: PATH/Carib Nelson.

Every year, millions of women and children in developing countries die unnecessarily from preventable causes. Women die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. Children under the age of 5 die from asphyxia at birth, sepsis, pneumonia, malaria and other causes. These deaths are a tragedy and an affront to our collective sense of dignity and fairness.

It’s not that we don’t know what to do—as the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children observed in its September 2012 report, a baker’s dozen of existing lifesaving products can be scaled up over the next five years to save more than 6 million lives. And these products can have even greater impact when deployed together with increased access to family planning and reproductive health services.

Read the article.

Girls and women “hit the hardest” by global recession

BBC, January 20, 2013

“The world is failing girls and women,” a report by Plan International and the Overseas Development Institute said. A shrinking economy sent girls’ infant mortality soaring, and more females were abused or starved, they said.
This could erode gains made in recent years towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals, they added.

Read the article.

How cervical cancer vaccines came to be

U.S. News & World Report, January 18, 2013

The cervical cancer vaccine has turned into one of the biggest success stories in the field. Although almost a half-million women develop cervical cancer annually, health experts predict that number is likely to drop dramatically in the coming years because of two vaccines that can prevent many cases of the disease.

Read the article.

Researchers discover the biological mechanism of malaria infection

Voice of America, January 17, 2013

Researchers say they have discovered how the malaria parasite gains a foothold inside the human body, causing the life-threatening illness. The finding could lead to a new treatment for malaria—using a drug that’s already in clinical trials for use against another condition.

Read the article.

Posted in Cervical cancer, Malaria, Maternal and child health, Reproductive health | Leave a comment

Seeking and stopping cervical cancer

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Guest Contributor

Guest contributor Vivien Tsu is associate director of PATH’s Reproductive Health Global Program.

January is Cervical Cancer Awareness Month—perhaps the only time of the year that people in Europe and North America give even a passing thought to a disease that, in many low-income countries, kills more women than any other type of cancer. Cervical cancer has been part of my work at PATH for more than 20 years. And while it still takes far too many lives, I’m encouraged by the progress we’ve made against a disease that vaccination and screening have made preventable.

Group of women in colorful saris sitting on a bench.

In many parts of the world, the Pap screening test isn’t available. Photo: PATH.

Twenty years ago, evidence was just beginning to conclusively show that the human papillomavirus (HPV) is the underlying cause of cervical cancer. Yet, there was no vaccine against HPV. And the Pap screening test, which most women in wealthy countries take for granted, was almost unknown in the countries where nearly nine of ten cervical cancer deaths occur. Continue reading »

Posted in About PATH, Cervical cancer, Featured posts | Leave a comment