Where we’ve come from | Since its launch in 2005, the Pacific Health Summit has tackled many challenging themes, including vaccines, maternal and newborn health, MDR-TB, malnutrition, and pandemic flu. We have also approached our mission “to connect science, industry, and policy for a healthier world” by exploring how key technologies and creative engineering processes can help improve health through prevention, early detection, and early treatment of disease.

Where we’re going in 2012 | How do we get appropriate technologies to the right people at the right price? The 2012 Pacific Health Summit presents the opportunity for the world’s top experts from all sectors to discuss how a spectrum of technologies are, can, and will be game changers for global health. This is a critical conversation, as both developing and developed societies grapple with the need to put affordability, access, and equity at the top of their health agendas, while facing an increasingly complex disease burden that is heedless of borders.

We invite the global health community to give their feedback and suggestions for our program next June, as well as possible collaborations and initiatives the Summit could catalyze.

¹According to Clayton Christensen of Harvard University, who coined the term in the 1990s, “an innovation that is disruptive allows a new population of consumers access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to the wealthy highly skilled.” Wikipedia defines a disruptive technology or “helping to create a new market and value network, eventually going on to disrupt an existing market and value network (over a few years or decades), displacing an earlier technology. The term is used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically first by designing for a different set of consumers in the new market and later by lowering prices in the existing market.”

The 2011 Summit addressed vaccines in a global context, with emphasis on middle- and low-income countries facing disproportionately significant funding, delivery, and access challenges. The theme evolved beside a vaccines manufacturing landscape that is increasingly more global. Plenary sessions honed in on how the vaccines paradigm might be affected by new international players in terms of innovation, pricing, and collaboration. A smaller workshop targeted the direct role that China has to play now and in the near future. Cold-chain logistics, funding issues, and how to address trust, cultural, and behavioral barriers that feed suspicion of immunization efforts were other critical points of debate.

Debuting at its now bi-annual London location, the 2010 Summit convened around the theme of “Maternal and Newborn Health: The Crux of a Decent Humanity.” Recognizing that every year, nearly 350,000 women die during pregnancy or childbirth, and 3.6 million children die in their first four weeks of life, leaders tackled issues like integrating new technologies in the MNH field, including utilizing information and communicative technologies to link expectant mothers with relevant health messages. The Summit also built on its annual mission to effectively utilize the business sector’s unique capability to drive advancement in health, drawing awareness to opportunities that exist in adapting, and bringing, medical advancements to rural areas. Sessions on financing mechanisms and the smooth incorporation of MNH budgets into the overall global health agenda were other foci of conversation.

For a detailed look at the proceedings, please view the 2010 Summit report.

The critical problem of how to address Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis’ (MDR-TB) pernicious spread was addressed through the 2009 Summit theme: "MDR-TB: Overcoming Global Resistance.” Over the course of two days, participants explored ways to strengthen existing approaches to basic TB control and MDR-TB management. The assembled quorum critically assessed the need to push staid TB technologies and treatments into the 21st century, noting the unexplored benefits that accelerated uptake of therapies like fixed-dose combination may provide. With high rates of discontinued medical treatment fueling MDR-TB prevalence, Summit participants discussed alternative delivery and oversight plans. Another top priority, eliminating the dearth of general awareness and funding compared to other diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria, was prevalent throughout the Summit.

For a detailed look at the proceedings, please view the 2009 Summit report.

"The Global Nutrition Challenge" headlined as the 2008 theme, focusing on the complex challenge of too little of the right nutrition for vulnerable populations and the rapidly emerging health threat of too much of the wrong nutrition in both developed and developing societies. The role of public-private partnerships emerged as an essential focus in the effort to ensure access to requisite sources of nutrition. Initiative for action was catalyzed through talk of how to utilize private industry’s unparalleled ability to reach vast populations, especially through food fortification and existing supply chains. Another key area of discussion was the critical challenge of ensuring a "healthy start" for children by stressing maternal and infant nutrition.

For a detailed look at the proceedings, please view the 2008 Summit report.

In 2007, the Summit addressed the topic of pandemic preparedness and prevention. This interest dates back to the inaugural Summit in June 2005, when Jong-wook Lee, the then Director-General of the World Health Organization, eloquently and passionately addressed the need for greater attention on the threat of a global avian influenza pandemic. Issues, including the preparedness of manufacturers, the strength of existing infrastructure, supply chain management, and the repercussions of panic during a pandemic were at the epicenter of Summit discussions. Special emphasis was placed on the issue of developing and stockpiling pre-pandemic H5N1 vaccines.

For a detailed look at the proceedings, please view the 2007 Summit report.

In 2006, the Summit continued its focus on emerging science and technology and its intersection with health policy, particularly in the area of "early health" and the value of early detection and intervention. Plenary sessions focused on cost-associative benefits of prevention based health care, the antaean, pre-emptive value of vaccines, and the role that mobile technology, health information collection and sharing across networks, and other innovations have to play in streamlining care and reducing pecuniary burdens. Against the backdrop of the recent SARS and avian flu concerns, participants also met on the pressing question of how to prepare for the next pandemic.

For a detailed look at the proceedings, please view the 2006 Summit report.

The inaugural Summit, held in 2005 addressed four conceptual building blocks for early health: the assessment of health risk, the prevention of disease, early detection of disease, and early treatment of disease. Participants delved into discussions centering on integral health issues underlying these concepts, including the question of what constitutes an ideal healthcare model and the inherent potential of genomic research and new technologies. Conceived as a forum in which to gather health leaders from East and West together, and convened with representatives from 20 countries, Summit attendees followed through on the meeting’s international precedent with an “East Meets West: Personal Health” panel discussion.

For a detailed look at the proceedings, please view the 2005 Summit report.