Program » Keynote Presenters

CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING IN LOW MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
Richard M.K. Adanu, Ph.D.
University of Ghana School of Public Health, GHANA

Professor Richard M.K. Adanu is the Rector of Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons since February 2021. He is a Specialist Obstetrician Gynaecologist and Women's Reproductive Health Epidemiologist. Professor Adanu has extensive experience in the fields of maternal mortality and morbidity reduction, contraceptive use by women and cervical cancer screening and has served locally and internationally as a consultant in these areas. He served as the Dean of the University of Ghana School of Public Health from August 2012 to July 2018. Professor Adanu served as the Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics from 2014 to 2020. His research is in both the clinical and social aspects of women's health. His research interests are epidemiology of obstetric and gynaecological disorders in Ghana, family planning, cervical cancer screening and maternal injuries.



MANUFACTURING POINT-OF-CARE DIAGNOSTICS IN A RESOURCE LIMITED COUNTRY, CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS
Laud Anthony W. Basing, Ph.D.
Incas Diagnostics, GHANA

Laud Anthony Basing is Medical Laboratory Scientist, Engineer, Innovator and Entrepreneur. He is a lecturer at the Department of Medical Diagnostics, KNUST and the Founder and CEO of Incas diagnostics a diagnostics development and manufacturing company located in Ghana, West Africa. With a background in both Microbiology and Biomedical Engineering, Laud Anthony's research interests has been in developing simple tests for infectious diseases that largely impact women and children in Africa. Laud Anthony is the first Ghanaian to have been nominated for the Innovation Prize for Africa. He won first place in the social innovation track of the 2018 Burton Morgan Business Model Competition in Purdue University and Second place in the 2017 Shurz Innovation Challenge for developing a urine-based Point of Care Diagnostic Kit for Sexually transmitted Diseases. In March of 2019, Laud was named one of the top 30 innovators in health in Africa in the World Health Organization's Africa Innovation Challenge for developing a molecular based rapid test kit for the neglected tropical disease yaws. In March of 2020, Laud led a team from Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, South Africa and Nigeria to win WHO's Covid19 Hackathon with CoviTTrads a Covid19 testing and tracking platform. In April 2020, Laud led a team of scientists from Incas Diagnostics to collaborate with KNUST to develop a rapid test kit for covid19 and in May 2020, he won Africa.com's Brilliant African Innovations Against COVID-19. He is an alumni of the Linnes Lab in Purdue University, West Lafayette.



DIAGNOSTIC CHALLENGES IN GLOBAL HEALTH AND LESSONS FROM THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Young Hong, Ph.D.
Independent Consultant, USA

Young Hong is an enthusiastic advocate of global health because it is closely tied to the very communities where we live. The current Covid-19 pandemic is a striking example of how tightly global and community health are interwoven. The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed health inequality in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) because critical resources including diagnostic testing to cope with COVID-19 infections are far-limited in those countries. To better prepare for future infectious disease outbreaks and manage pressing health burdens such as malaria, HIV, and TB, innovative, accessible, and sustainable diagnostic tools must be available to LMICs at adequate scales. With this in mind, Young Hong is keen to promote global health in the areas of partnerships between innovative R&D labs and manufacturers with cost-effective production capacities for the provision of essential diagnostic tests to LMICs. Also, capacity building in decentralized diagnostic testing by e-health and improved usability is his focus area.



EQUITABLE ACCESS TO REASSURED DIAGNOSTICS: SHIFTING THE CENTRE OF GRAVITY OF PRODUCTION TO LMICs
Kevin Land, Ph.D.
Mologic, UK

Kevin Land is an extraordinary professor at the University of Pretoria and program manager at the Centre for Advanced Rapid Diagnostics at Mologic, UK. He has been actively involved with microsystems technology for the last 20 years and works in the areas of microfluidics, microsystems engineering and low-cost diagnostic technologies. He established the microsystems and microfluidics technology capabilities at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa and lead the microsystems group for 12 years. He has worked extensively on micromanufacturing applications with laser technology while previously at the National Laser Centre. He obtained a Dr.-Ing. in Microsystems Engineering through the Institute for Microsystems Technology (Imtek), University of Freiburg, Germany where the focus was on the design, development, manufacturing and testing of microfluidic droplet systems. Kevin has a passion to develop equipment free or minimally instrumented low-cost diagnostics solutions utilising printed functionality and paper (or low-cost) substrates - particularly for developing countries where such solutions would have massively transformative impact and have the opportunity to reach billions of people. These are criteria encompassed by the REASSURED criteria.



THE ROLE OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES AS PART OF STRATEGY TO ELIMINATE CERVICAL CANCER IN LMICs
Mauricio Maza, M.D., M.P.H.
Basic Health International, EL SALVADOR

Dr. Mauricio Maza is the Executive Director of Basic Health International. He received his Doctor of Medicine from the Universidad Dr. Jose Matías Delgado in El Salvador, and his Master of Public Health from Harvard University with a concentration in Health Care Management and Policy. In 2015 Dr Maza was named as a Young Leader by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) and in 2016 was chosen to be part of the International Agency for Research in Cancer of the World Health Organization (IARC) "50 for 50" initiative which goal was to identify 50 future leaders in cancer research from low- and middle-income countries. He is currently a Class 15 Fellow from CALI, a program of the ASPEN Global Leadership Initiative. He has led consultancies for the CDC Foundation and the World Health Organization, among others. Dr. Maza believes in the need to advocate for more research and evidence-based health policies in limited resource settings.



POINT OF CARE DIAGNOSTICS TO IMPROVE MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH IN LOW-RESOURCE SETTINGS
Rebecca Richards-Kortum, Ph.D.
Rice 360° Institute for Global Health, USA

Rebecca Richards-Kortum is a bioengineer recognized for her work in point-of-care diagnostics and global health technologies. She is known particularly for her work to provide vulnerable populations in the developing world access to life-saving health technology, focusing on diseases such as cervical and premature birth. Richards-Kortum graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in Physics and Mathematics and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1990 with a PhD in Medical Physics. She joined the faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas in 1990 where she helped found the Biomedical Engineering department. In 2005, she moved to Rice University as Chair of the Bioengineering Department. She is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.