Alongside leaders from the nonprofit world, industry, and health care organizations, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) recently joined a new coalition to improve cancer diagnostics and treatment in developing countries.
SEATTLE – Alongside leaders from the nonprofit world, industry, and health care organizations, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) recently joined a new coalition to improve cancer diagnostics and treatment in developing countries.
Convened by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and led by the American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP), the newly formed Partners for Diagnosis and Treatment has announced a $26.5 million commitment to improving pathology services in low- and middle-income countries.
The coalition will provide patients in underserved areas of sub-Saharan Africa access to rapid cancer diagnostics and appropriate care and treatment. Partnership members include ASCP, IHME, Partners in Health, the American Cancer Society, Union International Cancer Control, Sakura Finetek, Roche Diagnostics, Pfizer, and Omnyx, LLC/GE Healthcare.
Boston-based Partners in Health will provide on-the-ground care, while IHME – home of the world’s largest population health data repository – is being commissioned to evaluate the program’s efforts. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiac diseases, diabetes, and cancers cause more deaths overall than any other group of causes. In 2013, there were more than 38 million deaths from NCDs globally, almost 27 million of which were in developing countries.
“We are excited to be a part of this interdisciplinary coalition and look forward to working with our partners to improve cancer diagnostics – and ultimately care – in Africa,” said Dr. Ali Mokdad, IHME’s lead researcher on the project after returning from a White House meeting to launch the partnership.
To read more about this exciting initiative, read the OSTP’s blog post about the roundtable here. Explore IHME’s research and interactive data visualizations at healthdata.org.