CEO of Infinitum Humanitarian Systems Eric Rasmussen, MD, MDM, FACP helped the Medical Devices Group understand the depth of the challenges to global health. You really have to watch his talk (some of the images will take your breath away) for the full impact of the presentation and please share it on social media and with your colleagues. Visit http://medgroup.biz/future-global-health for the video recap and transcript and consider the 10x Medical Device Conference to meet speakers like Eric. For 10x information, see http://medgroup.biz/About-10x

2. Smartphones were pressed into
bacteriological growth media.
“We didn’t have to wait long…”
University of Surrey, 2014.

4. Supertyphoon Haiyan
08 November 2013
196 mph at landfall
11 million affected
27,400 injured
1,700 missing
6,000 dead

5. Things Not Digital
in Global Public Health

6. Demographics

8. As of 2007,
we’re more
urban than
rural for the
first time in
human history.
About a billion
of us live in
slums like this.
Islamabad
Image: National Geographic

9. 95% of the increase in population by 2050 will be
in the cities of the developing world.
UN Habitat-2010
~9.31 Billion
in 2050

10. William Gibson’s “uneven distribution”
Caracas, Venezuela
Image: CDKN.org

11. Megacity
Growth
Doubling time:
0.2% = 350 years
0.6% = 116 years
1.5% = 47 years
2.5% = 28 years
4.0% = 18 years
5.0% = 14 years
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔
✔ = developing
world

12. Infant mortality
per 1,000 live births
Best Worst
For reference,
The US infant mortality
rate is 5.20.
We rank 47th, between
Greece and New Caledonia
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/

13. But efforts like the Millennium Development Goals
have shown what’s possible with infant mortality:
> = mortality dropped by roughly half
>
>
>
>
>>
>
= war variance

14. In the
United States,
stunning
achievements
in public health
and civic
responsibility

15. Disasters:
Fast and Slow

16. Just over the past 48 months…
• Sendai earthquake and tsunami
• Fukushima nuclear disaster
• Christchurch earthquake
• Supertyphoon Haiyan
• US tornado swarms
• Russian wheat fires
• Russian heat wave
• Queensland floods
• Hurricane Sandy
• Pakistan floods

17. Nine Planetary Boundaries
Planetary boundaries: Exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecology and Society 14(2):32, 2009

19. About 25% of global agriculture is grown in water-stressed areas
World Resources Institute – May 2014
http://www.wri.org/applications/maps/agriculturemap/#x=142.03&y=12.23&l=2&v=home&d=gmia

20. About
15.4
million
all-cause
refugees
globally.

21. Just in syndromic surveillance
alone, ISDS predicts in 2030
we’ll be about 4 million
healthcare workers short.
Not like you. Like her.

23. Not such good news elsewhere…
Seem to be new Very different / Don’t belong
• HIV
• SARS
• West Nile
• Hantavirus
• H5N1 Avian
• H1N1 Swine
• MERS
• Lassa fever
• Nipah
• Ebola and Marburg
• Legionnaires
• Hendra
• Enterovirus 71
• Cyclosporiasis
• Human Monkeypox
• Malaria (DR)
• Diphtheria
• Dengue
• Tuberculosis (MDR, XDR, TDR)
• Chikungunya
• Cholera
• Plague
• Rift Valley Fever
• Typhoid Fever
• Resistance…
– MRSA
– VRSA
– NDM-1
• Zoonoses (75%...)
• Agricultural and Livestock pathogens

24. 24
Of more than 30 “new” infectious
diseases since 1970, about 75%
have been zoonotic

25. Point of Care
diagnostics?
• Language
• Culture
• Experience
• Cosmology
• Myth
Turkana…refugees?
Northern Kenya, 2012

26. 26
Bad water, food, medical care…persistent struggle.
Image: Crystal Davis, WRI

27. 27
Dhaka, Bangladesh:
On any given day 1/3 of the population is sick.
Grameen Kalyan, 2013
Image: InSTEDD

28. 28
Hard-working, ambitious, and eager to learn
Image: Eric Rasmussen

29. But without a functioning State…
Janjaweed raid, Darfur, 2009
Photo: Reuters

30. 30
Dadaab Refugee Camp, eastern Kenya, 2013

31. Natural disasters
Industrial disasters
Climate change
Conflict
Trafficking
Religious extremism
Economic recession
Post-colonial disintegration
Demographic migration
Poverty / Brain Drain
Emerging infections
Compound Crises

32. Ecosystem
Services
Energy
Security
Food
Security
Humanitarian
Assistance and
Disaster Relief
National
Recovery and
Reconstruction
Water
Security
Disaster
Risk
Reduction
Political
Stability
Hazard
Preparedness
Infrastructure
Security
and
Response
Transportation
Security
Job
creation
Public
Health
Communications
Security
Capacity
Building
Emerging
Disease
Detection
Economic
Resilience
Human
Security
32

33. Data
for
Decisions

34. Crowd-sourced data –
open and free,
to pretty rigorous standards

35. WWHGD.org
Data Preparedness
for
Human Security
Human Security Taxonomy ANTz
Image: MindTel
ANTz – Village health resources

37. UN effort
Big Data. Huge.
For knee-of-the-curve
warning of:
• Emerging infections
• Developing famine
• Economic disruption
• Social unrest

38. 11 May 2014

39. Food and
Water

40. Aquaponics
10% of the water.
8x yield / unit area / time.

41. Water

42. Fresh water
reclamation
seems a
desirable goal
Photos by Lorenzo Moscia
National Geographic

43. Puralytics.com

44. Puralytics Shield
• 500 gallons per day
• 24 inches high, and 60 pounds
• LED-driven photocatalytic reactions
• Nanomembrane flow system
• 570 watts
• Replaceable cartridge
• Zero water waste
• Routine maintenance annually

45. First water production in the field
11 May 2014

46. Things we can’t do well yet
in low-resource environments…
• Communicate between languages and cultures
• Analyze water
• Clean water
• Diagnose viral diseases
• Provide diagnostic tools to CHWs
• Evaluate medication legitimacy
• Predict zoonotic transmission risk
• Provide power
• Determine medication delivery
• Manage cold-chains
• Educate women

50. Take-Home messages:
• Human security is a desirable goal.
• Health is one security component,
driven by foundational needs.
• Exploring those mathematically
inarguable needs is good business.
• It’s a market full of science,
engineering, art and design.
• It’s also a market of systems:
interesting, profitable, and fair.

51. Eric Rasmussen, MD, MDM, FACP
RasmussenE @ ihs-i.com
360-621-3592