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The IIH Approach to Innovation
The Innovations in International Health innovation platform aims to accelerate the development of global health technologies in a multidisciplinary research environment addressing the needs of patients and physicians in resource-poor settings.
IIH-directed collaboration between researchers, users, and health practitioners launched a growing portfolio of inventions that are at different stages of deployment in less than 11 months. These include inhalable vaccine and drug delivery technology, RFID-enhanced disease surveillance systems, medication compliance systems and low-cost incubators for rapid tuberculosis detection.
IIH enhances sustainability of its technologies by bridging the gap between the invention, funding, and clinical trial stages of products aimed at the patients not served by current medical technology. This allows our research community to explore and develop products aimed specifically at developing world settings.
Our model for collaborative research is Agile, Open and Focused to create high quality products that are appropriate and affordable to base of the pyramid patients.
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Our Innovation Platform
Our innovation model began in the summer 2007 after launching a successful meeting of 17 investigators, from 6 different institutions and 6 countries.
Our Collaborative Innovation activities provide a multidisciplinary and international set of experts to create an open forum that matches medical practioners and device innovators. The resulting interactions have launched a diverse set of applied research projects that can be quickly developed into medical products.
The IIH Accelerated Product Development (APD) framework (shown at far left) is informed by the Collaborative Innovation and takes those research ideas into hands-on projects. The IIH APD can take an idea from inception, into medical feedback, through clinical feasibility studies and trials and provide assistance in funding.
Our partners' global footprint allows us to launch devices and research studies in the United States, Nicaragua, Honduras, Peru, Tanzania, India and Pakistan. |
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Our Team
Amy Smith, Founder
Senior Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, co-founder, International Development Initiative, and founder, Designs for Developing Countries Project, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Amy Smith is a senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at MIT. She served in the US Peace Corps in Botswana and has also done field work in Senegal, South Africa, Nepal, Haiti, Honduras, Ghana and Zambia. She won the BF Goodrich Collegiate Inventor's Award and the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for Invention for her work in creating technologies to improve lives in the developing world. In 2002, she began teaching D-Lab, a series of courses and field trips that focus on the development, design and dissemination of appropriate technologies for international development. She founded the International Development Initiative at MIT, the Innovations in International Health program and the International Development Design Summit. She was selected as a 2004 MacArthur Fellow, recognizing her work in this area. Her current projects are in the areas of water testing and treatment, global health, agricultural processing and alternative energy.
Aamir Khan, Founder
Executive Director, InterActive Research and Development
Associate Faculty member, Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Khan is the Executive Director of InterActive Research and Development as well as serving as associate faculty at Johns Hopkins University and the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan. Dr. Khan trained as an epidemiologist at the Aga Khan University, and at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in the Division of Disease Prevention and Control in 1998, where he earned his PhD in International Health with a focus on infectious disease surveillance and vaccine trials. He has coordinated research on behalf of Johns Hopkins on the persistent excretion of poliovirus in seven countries, pneumonia surveillance in the northern areas of Pakistan, and measles surveillance and vaccine trials in Karachi. He is the Site Principal Investigator on the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) PneumoADIP funded grant for preparations for a pneumococcal vaccine trial in Karachi. He is also the Director of the Center for Injection Safety (CIS), Karachi, Pakistan (there are 6 centers in total; they, together, make up IRD), in collaboration with the Safe Injection Global Network and Becton Dickinson.
Dr. Khan's significant experience in public health, and his broad global network will be critical in shaping the direction of the IIH program. It was his frustration with running into health problems that require engineering solutions that gave him the initial idea for the Innovations in International Health program. His organization will provide students with numerous design challenges, give feedback on the proposed designs, and provide resources to enable the students to run field trials on their prototypes in Pakistan.
Jose Gomez-Marquez, Program Director
Co-founder and co-inventor, Aerovax, co-founder X out TB,
Lecturer D-Lab: Health, MIT
Jose Gomez-Marquez is the program director for the Innovations in International Health initiative at MIT. Among the projects under his technology practice at IIH is the Aerovax Drug Delivery System, a device for mass delivery of inhalable drugs and vaccines to remote populations. The rest of his IIH invention portfolio includes SafePilot, a next generation cane for the blind, and most recently, the X out TB program, which aims to increase TB therapy adherence in developing countries using novel diagnostics and mobile technology. These technologies have been featured in Forbes, Wired, the Booz Allen Hamilton Technology Petting Zoo, and the Dow Jones Emerging Ventures Conference on Tomorrow's Innovation.
Jose has been a guest speaker at the NCIIA's Invent2Venture discussing affordable technology and a director of MIT's D-Lab: Health, a course on designing global health technologies at MIT. After working in institutional investments and international development, Jose went back as a mid-career student to the Worcester Polytechnic Institute where he focuses on policy research studies covering international technology transfer and small team innovation. Jose is a 3 time MIT IDEAS Competition winner, including two Lemelson Awards for International Technology. He arrived to the United States from his native Honduras on a Rotary scholarship and currently lives in Newton, Massachusetts.
Program Development Members
IIH enjoys the participation of principal investigators and health innovators who have key areas of IIH program responsibility beyond their own global health research.
Amit Srivastava
Staff Scientist in Infectious Diseases
Children's Hospital Boston & Harvard Medical School
Amit Srivastava received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University studying intracellular protein trafficking using the tools of yeast genetics and cell biology, followed by postdoctoral research in bacterial pathogenesis and immunology at Tufts and Harvard universities. In addition, Amit has been a lecturer at Carnegie Mellon and mentored several undergraduate researchers. At Children’s Hospital Boston, Amit is a member of a global consortium of four research groups, collaborating in the design a novel pediatric vaccine against pneumococcal meningitis and invasive disease that afflicts one million children every year, primarily in the developing world; this vaccine is intended for use and eventual production in resource-poor regions of the world.
Amit has biotechnology consulting experience within the US and his global health interests include facilitating the process of transferring healthcare innovation to the developing world in order to address various unmet needs and understanding the evolution of the indigenous biotechnology sector in developing countries.
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