Reverse Innovation: An Opportunity for Strengthening Health Systems

BACKGROUND: Canada, when compared to other OECD countries, ranks poorly with respect to innovation and innovation adoption while struggling with increasing health system costs. As a result of its failure to innovate, the Canadian health system will struggle to meet the needs and demands of both current and future populations. The purpose of this initiative was to explore if a competition-based reverse innovation challenge could mobilize and stimulate current and future leaders to identify and lead potential reverse innovation projects that address health system challenges in Canada. METHODS: An open call for applications took place over a 4-month period. Applicants were enticed to submit to the competition with a $50,000 prize for the top submission to finance their project. Leaders from a wide cross-section of sectors collectively developed evaluation criteria and graded the submissions. The criteria evaluated: proof of concept, potential value, financial impact, feasibility, and scalability as well as the use of prize money and innovation team. RESULTS: The competition received 12 submissions from across Canada that identified potential reverse innovations from 18 unique geographical locations that were considered developing and/or emerging markets. The various submissions addressed health system challenges relating to education, mobile health, aboriginal health, immigrant health, seniors health and women\u27s health and wellness. Of the original 12 submissions, 5 finalists were chosen and publically profiled, and 1 was chosen to receive the top prize. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this initiative demonstrate that a competition that is targeted to reverse innovation does have the potential to mobilize and stimulate leaders to identify reverse innovations that have the potential for system level impact. The competition also provided important insights into the capacity of Canadian students, health care providers, entrepreneurs, and innovators to propose and implement reverse innovation in the context of the Canadian health system

Cost-effectiveness of reducing salt intake in the Pacific Islands: protocol for a before and after intervention study

BackgroundThere is broad consensus that diets high in salt are bad for health and that reducing salt intake is a cost-effective strategy for preventing chronic diseases. The World Health Organization has been supporting the development of salt reduction strategies in the Pacific Islands where salt intakes are thought to be high. However, there are no accurate measures of salt intake in these countries. The aims of this project are to establish baseline levels of salt intake in two Pacific Island countries, implement multi-pronged, cross-sectoral salt reduction programs in both, and determine the effects and cost-effectiveness of the intervention strategies.Methods/DesignIntervention effectiveness will be assessed from cross-sectional surveys before and after population-based salt reduction interventions in Fiji and Samoa. Baseline surveys began in July 2012 and follow-up surveys will be completed by July 2015 after a 2-year intervention period.A three-stage stratified cluster random sampling strategy will be used for the population surveys, building on existing government surveys in each country. Data on salt intake, salt levels in foods and sources of dietary salt measured at baseline will be combined with an in-depth qualitative analysis of stakeholder views to develop and implement targeted interventions to reduce salt intake.DiscussionSalt reduction is a global priority and all Member States of the World Health Organization have agreed on a target to reduce salt intake by 30% by 2025, as part of the global action plan to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases. The study described by this protocol will be the first to provide a robust assessment of salt intake and the impact of salt reduction interventions in the Pacific Islands. As such, it will inform the development of strategies for other Pacific Island countries and comparable low and middle-income settings around the world.<br /

Social relationships in a cooperatively polyandrous group of tamarins ( Saguinus fuscicollis )

This paper presents detailed data on the social relationships among the adults, and between the adults and young, of a cooperatively polyandrous saddle-back tamarin ( Saguinus fusciollis ; Callitrichidae) group studied for one year. Some data are also presented from groups studied in other years. Adult males in the study groups gave more grooming than they received, while the opposite was true for females (e.g. Fig. 1). The two polyandrous males in the main study group were very rarely aggressive to each other, rarely tried to disrupt each others' copulations, groomed each other, and occasionally shared food, suggesting that their relationship was more affiliative than agonistic. Data on grooming (Fig. 2), spatial relationships, and the initiation of copulations suggest that the males of this group, may have been somewhat more responsible than the female for the maintenance of male-female relationships. Both males and females performed all forms of parental care except lactation. In the main study group each of the males groomed the offspring and remained in close proximity to them more than did the female (Figs.3 and 4). These data are compared with existing data on social relationships in bird species that exhibit cooperative polyandry.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46887/1/265_2004_Article_BF00299639.pd

COVID-19 and Pacific food system resilience: opportunities to build a robust response

2020, International Society for Plant Pathology and Springer Nature B.V. The unfolding COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of the Pacific food system to externalities and has had far-reaching impacts, despite the small number of COVID-19 cases recorded thus far. Measures adopted to mitigate risk from the pandemic have had severe impacts on tourism, remittances, and international trade, among other aspects of the political economy of the region, and are thus impacting on food systems, food security and livelihoods. Of particular concern will be the interplay between loss of incomes and the availability and affordability of local and imported foods. In this paper, we examine some of the key pathways of impact on food systems, and identify opportunities to strengthen Pacific food systems during these challenging times. The great diversity among Pacific Island Countries and Territories in their economies, societies, and agricultural potential will be an important guide to planning interventions and developing scenarios of alternative futures. Bolstering regional production and intraregional trade in a currently import-dependent region could strengthen the regional economy, and provide the health benefits of consuming locally produced and harvested fresh foods - as well as decreasing reliance on global supply chains. However, significant production, processing, and storage challenges remain and would need to be consistently overcome to influence a move away from shelf-stable foods, particularly during periods when human movement is restricted and during post-disaster recovery