Institute focuses on global healthcare innovation

Based at Imperial College London and headed by robotic surgery pioneer Prof Lord Ara Darzi, the IGHI will work with governments, NGOs and business to ensure that innovations in healthcare and health policy have a significant impact across the world.

Darzi 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.’

IGHI’s deputy chairman Prof Guang-Zhong Yang is currently developing miniature wireless sensors that can be worn on the body to monitor a patient’s health remotely. Such devices, he said, will be useful for developed countries with burgeoning elderly populations as well as in countries where healthcare services are limited.