Dublin Summit to Examine How Technology Can Address Global Healthcare Challenges

A major two-day conference on global health education and technology is taking place at Dublin Castle today and tomorrow.  The GETHealth Summit has been organised by the John Hopkins Centre for Clinical Global Health Education, which is based in the USA, in partnership with iheed, an Irish social enterprise that specialises in digital training content for health workers.

A range of expert speakers will address 200 international delegates at the event over the coming two days, outlining how technological solutions can be developed in response to global healthcare challenges, such as the current Ebola crisis.   

The Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar TD, will officially open the event tomorrow morning. In addition to Minister Varadkar, those in attendance will include: 

• Tom O’Callaghan, Founder and CEO, iheed;
• Dr. Kunal Patel, Medical Director, iheed;
• Kathleen McQuone-Elliott, Director of e-Learning, iheed;
• Clodagh McLoughlin, Conference Coordinator, iheed;
• Robert Bollinger, Professor of Infectious Diseases at John Hopkins University and Head of the Centre for Clinical Global Health Education.

Other speakers over the two days of the GETHealth Summit will include:

• International businessman Denis O’Brien (tomorrow, 13^th at 9am);
• Dr. Marc Mitchell, Global Health Lecturer at Harvard School of Public Health (tomorrow, 13^th, at 11.45);
• Alain Labrique, Founding Director of the John Hopkins University Global mHealth Initiative (tomorrow, 13^th at 14.45pm);
• Uju Ofomata-Aderemi, Programme Director at OneWorld UK (Friday, 14^th at 10am);
• Vincent Richardson, Chief Information Officer at Concern Wordwide (Friday, 14^th at 8am).

Commenting ahead of the GETHealth Summit, Dr. Kunal Patel, Medical Director of iheed, said: “In many developing countries, in particular, there are not enough health care workers on the ground and, often, they are operating in remote locations with little or no access to upskilling and training opportunities. We know technology has a major role to play in addressing and resolving such healthcare challenges, and we look forward to discussing practical examples of how this can be done at the GETHealth Summit”. 

“It is hugely significant for Dublin to be hosting such a gathering of internationally-renowned health, IT and development experts.  This is an opportunity for us to show how Ireland can become a global leader in developing innovative technological healthcare solutions.”

The full conference programme is available at: www.gethealthsummit.org/agenda/.