Last May, at the Biomedical Engineering Design Day at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, an international trio announced a $1.4 million partnership. The “Day of Birth Alliance” is aimed at developing medical innovation to protect the health of pregnant women and newborns during the babies’ crucial first few hours of life. The alliance strengthens CBID’s Global Health Program by providing funds for student travel, project costs, and fellowships.
Here’s a quick glimpse at the three partnering organizations and those who will be leading the charge:
- Jhpiego: With its network of 76 programs in 51 countries funded by 38 donors, Jhpiego provides a deep-rooted understanding of global health needs combined with 40 years of implementing innovative solutions in the most challenging parts of the world. Harshad Sanghvi, vice president of innovations and medical director of Jhpiego, is a world expert in health care for women and their families. His office oversees the technical development of innovative medical solutions for low-resource settings. He is a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
- Johns Hopkins CBID: The program gives students the structure and support to focus on developing innovative medical devices. Youseph Yazdi, executive director of the CBID program, serves on the faculty of the Department of Biomedical Engineering as well as the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He also oversees the Coulter Translational Research Partnership.
- • Laerdal Global Health: This partner provides expertise and assistance with manufacturing and distribution of innovations. Tore Laerdal is chairman of Laerdal Medical, a leading health care training material company in Norway. Laerdal’s nonprofit unit, Laerdal Global Health, has pledged to develop innovative medical products to help reduce global infant mortality by 2015.