Project Syndicate: Health Care Innovation in the Global South
Shams El Arifeen, epidemiologist, senior scientist, and senior director of the Maternal and Child Health Division at icddr,b

“… [I]nnovators living and working in resource-poor settings are among the best equipped to develop and test cost-effective health solutions. After all, nobody understands the limitations of a weak health care system better than someone who has to work in one. … That is why globally networked, developing-country-based health research institutes like icddr,b are invaluable. They provide a platform for local researchers and innovators to recognize opportunities that an outsider may never see, and to develop and evaluate their ideas in the precise environment for which they are designed. With the data they collect, developing country health care innovators can set the stage for their clinical advances to be transformed into national public policies, not just in their own countries, but in resource-deprived communities worldwide. The results promise to transform the lives of neglected and impoverished people everywhere” (6/17).