General Article
When Dr. Lee Hartwell was approached about organizing a health-care event to occur this spring, he saw an opportunity to further his vision of steering the cumbersome health-care industry in a new direction.
"It occurred to me that the only big idea for health care was how science could move health care from late-stage disease management to early detection, prevention and individualized medicine," Hartwell said.
A lot of influential people share his vision, and not just those in the United States. When the first Pacific Health Summit convenes next week at the Bell Harbor Conference Center, as many as 250 invited participants from at least 17 Pacific Rim countries will sit down to launch a dialogue about developing a new health-care model.
Participants in the June 8-10 meeting will represent the public and private sectors with expertise in such areas as research, medical practice, economics and policy.
The underlying premise for the summit is this: Nearly one-half of the world's population resides in Pacific Rim countries. Health-care policies and the detection and treatment of disease in this region have a profound impact on populations and economies worldwide. Because the United States and many Asian countries face similar challenges arising from diseases that accompany prosperity and aging populations — the threat of infectious diseases and for some the lack of access to information and technology — there is the unique opportunity to take a leadership role on an issue of vital importance.
"The Hutchinson Center is one of the logical sponsors of the Summit because of our emphasis on early detection and our strong public health sciences division," Hartwell said.
Joining the Center as a presenting organization is the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), where Dr. Michael Birt is the director of the Center for Health and Aging. NBR is a nonprofit, nonpartisan institution that conducts advanced research on policy-relevant issues in Asia. It also serves as the global clearinghouse for Asian research conducted by specialists and institutions worldwide.
"It is a perfect partnership because NBR understands diplomacy, policy and the Pacific Rim very well," Hartwell said. "Birt has turned out to be a tremendously effective organizer and promoter for the meeting."
New health-care paradigms
According to summit organizers, diseases such as cancer, influenza and SARS cannot be contained by national borders, but could be prevented and cured by developing new paradigms in collaborative global healthcare policy. The Summit will examine the issues facing global-health care and develop realistic policy solutions that will impact how disease is detected and treated worldwide. These include:
The summit will feature panel discussions under an umbrella of four plenary sessions: The promise of science; the impact on public health; the impact on health care and personal health; and science, health and economic growth.
Despite being a new idea, the summit was quickly embraced by many influential people and organizations that brought considerable resources to bear. The Russell Family Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are founding organizations. The leadership of those organizations, George F. Russell, Jr., and William H. Gates, Sr., are co-chairs of the summit's senior advisory group.
Sponsoring organizations include GE Healthcare, Microsoft, the Coca-Cola Company, Intel, Merck, Agilent Technologies, The Starr Foundation, the National Cancer Institute and Affymetrix. Supporting organizations are Edelman, an international public relations firm, and the National Center for APEC, the official link between the U.S. business community and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation organization.
APEC has formally recognized the summit; its leaders say it is the best opportunity to transform international health care around early detection and prevention of diseases and "engender cooperation for global policies to support life-sciences innovation."
A luminous list
The summit is drawing many significant participants. They include Jong-Wook Lee, director-general of the World Health Organization; Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health; Pornchai Matangkasombut, chief executive officer, Thailand Center of Excellence for Life Sciences; Drs. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, director of the National Cancer Institute; Zhu Chen, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Kiyoshi Kurokawa, president of the Science Council of Japan; Kyeong-Ho Lee, president of the Korea Health Industry Development Institute and K. Satku, director of medical services, Ministry of Health, Singapore.
Moderators of the plenary sessions also are a luminous group and include Maria Livanos Cattaui, secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce; and Drs. Richard Klausner, executive director of global health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and Moises Naim, editor and publisher of Foreign Policy Magazine.
Successive summits are planned in Seattle for each summer through 2007, followed by another in Beijing in 2008 to coincide with the Olympic Games. Bob Walsh, the man who brought the 1990 Goodwill Games to Seattle, first asked Hartwell to consider organizing a health-care event in conjunction with the proposed 2005 "Road to Beijing" sports and cultural festivities planned for the city this summer, but which will not take place.
For more information, visit the Pacific Health Summit Web site, www.pacifichealthsummit.org/.
