Previous projects

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    2011

  1. Research and development of medical products: opportunities and challenges
  2. Statement on water and health
  3. Statement on mental health policy issues
  4. Academy response to Royal Society consultation on 'Science as a public enterprise'
  5. Diabetes & obesity: getting to the heart of the matter

    6. 2010

  6. Inter Academy Medical Panel Statement on the health co-benefits of policies to tackle climate change
  7. Statement on the health of women and children
  8. Academy submissions to the spending review consultation 2010
  9. Biomedical research - a platform for increasing health and wealth in the UK
  10. Redressing the balance: the status and valuation of teaching in academic careers
  11. Reaping the rewards: a vision for UK medical science
  12. Revalidation reforms

    13. 2009

  13. Academia, industry and the NHS: collaboration and innovation
  14. Rejuvenating ageing research
  15. Genome-wide association studies: understanding the genetics of common disease
  16. Global health diagnostics: research, development and regulation
  17. Biotechnology innovation: opportunities and challenges
  18. Research in general practice

    19. 2008

  19. Global mental health
  20. Brain science, addiction and drugs
  21. Inter-species embryos
  22. Building clinical academic capacity and the allocation of resources across academic specialties

    23. 2007

  23. Optimising stratified medicines R&D: addressing scientific and economic issues
  24. Identifying the environmental causes of disease
  25. Careers for biomedical scientists and clinicians in industry
  26. Modernising medical careers inquiry
  27. Systems biology

    28. 2006

  28. Personal data for public good: using health information in medical research
  29. Use of non-human primates in research
  30. Pandemic influenza
  31. Science of violence
  32. Reform of research funding and assessment
  33. Public health - ethical issues
  34. Sir David Cooksey's review of UK health research
  35. Medical research: assessing the benefits to society
  36. Research ethics committees
  37. MB PhD working group
  38. Testing antibody therapies

    39. 2005

  39. Safer Medicines
  40. Human tissue consultations
  41. RAE 2008 Consultation: Panel criteria and methods
  42. The freedom to succeed
  43. Mental Capacity Bill
  44. Strengthening health services research
  45. SARS
  46. Microbial challenge studies

    47. 2004

  47. Detection and identification of infectious disease
  48. The science of ageing
  49. Choosing health
  50. Restoring neurological function
  51. Calling time: the nation's drinking as a major health issue
  52. Science spending
  53. Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
  54. Human tissue legislation

    55. 2003

  55. Strengthening clinical research

    56. 2002

  56. Unclaimed and unidentified organs
  57. Infectious disease in livestock
  58. The structure, constitution and governance of the General Medical Council

    59. 2001

  59. Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE)
  60. Vaccines - current status and future needs
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Global health diagnostics: research, development and regulation

Summary| Project Downloads

Summary:

To date, efforts to address the burden of infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) have largely focused on the development and delivery of vaccines and therapeutic interventions, whilst the importance of diagnostics has been comparatively neglected.

As a result, current diagnostic methodologies are often inappropriate to needs and contexts of LMIC, and there remain a number of barriers to the development and delivery of safe, effective and affordable diagnostics. Yet, diagnostics guide the majority of healthcare decisions and the advent of rapid point-of-care diagnostics holds significant promise for addressing the health burden in LMIC.

In order to highlight the promise of diagnostics, and to discuss barriers to their development, regulation and use in LMIC, the Academy held a workshop on the topic of 'Global Health Diagnostics: Research Development and Regulation' on Wednesday 3 December 2008. The workshop included presentations by leading experts in the field and provided an opportunity to bring together representatives from academia, industry, stakeholders and government for an active and open discussion.

The Academy’s workshop report is available below. The report highlights challenges and opportunities to research, development and regulation of diagnostics pertinent to LMIC, with a focus on rapid diagnostic tests for infectious diseases. In particular, the report considers: the design and development of diagnostic tests; access to diagnostics; use of diagnostics in practice; regulation and evaluation of diagnostic tests; and challenges and opportunities for the diagnostics industry.

Bringing these themes together, the report highlights the need for capacity strengthening in research and development, a greater focus on the priorities and contexts of LMIC during the design of diagnostics, and a tightening of regulatory requirements - potentially through a World Health Assembly resolution. The report also highlights scope for the development of a single body, involving academia, industry and relevant stakeholders, which could provide leadership and guidance on behalf of the diagnostics community, and contribute to the implementation of regulatory policy.

The workshop report and workshop programme can be found below. For further information, or to order additional copies of the report, please contact Dr Georgie MacArthur (georgie.macarthur@acmedsci.ac.uk).

 

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