Global Ideas Institute  

2010-11 Expert Speaker Series

Dr. Ken Bassett | Dr. Anita McGahan | Dr. Peter A. Singer | Dr. Yu-Ling Cheng

Can Innovation Save Global Health?
January 13, 2011 | 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Munk School of Global Affairs, Room 208N

Dr. Peter A. Singer
Director, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health and CEO, Grand Challenges Canada

Why is it right that a child born in the developing world is 13 times as likely to die compared to one born in Canada? Why is it fair that a woman in the developing world is 50 times as likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth? It’s not right and it’s not fair. nnovation can help to improve these and other challenges in global health. In 2010, Canada launched Grand Challenges Canada, a non-profit foundation funded by foreign aid that funds global health innovation. We will discuss Grand Challenges Canada and its approach. We will examine the role of domestic innovation in the developing world as a sustainable way to improve global health. Finally, we will explore the relevance of global health innovation to Canada to discover that the benefits include not only altruism but also clues on how we can innovate on value, and defl ate costs, in our own health system.

Professor Peter A. Singer is CEO of Grand Challenges Canada, Professor of Medicine, Sun Life Financial Chair in Bioethics, and Director at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, University Health Network and University of Toronto. Singer’s research is on life sciences and the developing world – how technologies make the transition from lab to village.