• by Mark Sommer
• Tuesday, June 30, 2009
• Inter Press Service

The specter of a swine flu pandemic has driven home the urgent need for more rapid and effective responses to a wide range of public health threats. But in order to respond more effectively, we need to create a more open system for the exchange of vital health information and research across sectors, disciplines, geographic, economic and cultural boundaries. In a world of increasingly global emergencies, we need all hands on deck, including the patients and publics most affected, writes Mark Sommer, host of the award-winning, internationally syndicated radio program, A World of Possibilities

Pioneers in medical and scientific research are now laying the foundations for a global health commons, a medical information and innovation exchange system that could greatly accelerate the pace and enhance the effectiveness of crucial discoveries. Based largely online for global reach, access, and affordability, they believe such a common resource could serve as a meeting place and clearinghouse where stakeholders in diverse dimensions of public and personal health could find one another, share the results of their experiments, identify common challenges, and collaborate in designing solutions to them.

With the development of computational biology, some kinds of medical trials can be conducted at a cost that even a group of patients can collectively afford to finance. Just as patients are desperate for a cure, many doctors and researchers are desperate to develop treatments for diseases long thought incurable.

(*) Mark Sommer hosts the award-winning, internationally syndicated radio program, A World of Possibilities (www.aworldofpossibilities.org).

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM//

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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