Panel Reflection

All the presenters this week were very passionate about health and development. The way they expressed this gave extra force to the points they were making. While some contexts will demand a more objective style of presentation, the level of interest the presenter has in the subject can have a significant effect on their ability to communicate complex ideas to others.

Over 75% of new drug applications have no therapeutic benefit over existing products. This was referred to as “cargo-cult science”.

Panel Question

I would have liked to ask whether medial research and development could be approached with an “open source” methodology, which has been so successful in software development.

Tutorial Reflection

Pharmacists were an example of key nodal points, in the way they influence consumer behaviour by suggesting generic medicines.

Connections within this course

There are strong links from this topic to development, particular the capacity of various countries to manage epidemic disease. Access to (what we would consider to be) basic facilities can severely hamper health services. For example, pathology services are just part of a wider network of health services, but without them the effectiveness of the whole health system is reduced.

Viral hemorrhagic fever from Lassa can be carried by rats and is spread by rat-to-human and human-to-human infection. This is an obvious example of a system that could be analysed as a network.

Sean Grimmond – a Queensland University researcher, is putting gene sequencing in the public domain. He is using computer graphics to analyse genes. A similar computer graphics approach to genetics research was discussed in a seminar I attended. There seems to be a barrier to using these techniques to people who are not computer experts. I was not able to find a simple tool to draw network models for the tutorial I led. I have since discovered a function in Mathematica (see toolbox) that can be used for this. There still seems to be room for someone to develop a network (also called graph) analysis tool that can be used by a wider range of people.

Connections to other courses

There is a lack of research and development on health issues that carry the highest disease burden. The 20-year patent system rewards development of widely used medicines that are used often, not one-off cures. Perhaps these issues could be analysed using an expected present value approach. This would require “someone” to define the value of a human life. However this valuing is already being done implicitly, as indicated by the areas that are prioritised for research.

This concept could tie in with a needs based research and development system, which already involves:

• Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative
• Universities Allied for Essential Medicines

External Connections

Gene Networks seminar, as mentioned above.

The system for innovation is made up of a set of institutions that interact to produce new products. Globalisation increases the nested complexity of systems.

Tools to Manage Complexity

Understand cultural values – in one of the villages mentioned during the panel the traditional understanding of managing disease involved a 21-day isolation. The approach used by “modern medicine” was very similar. It is much easier to manage complex issues if you can work within existing frameworks.

Transparency – the need to know what is happening inside systems

Understand motivations – patent offices collect fees for patents registered, they have an interest in seeing more patent applications.