At the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting at Davos, Switzerland in May 2022, AstraZeneca Chair, Leif Johansson, announced our commitment to join the WEF EDISON Alliance, a public-private partnership that aims to improve the lives of 1 billion people through digital inclusion by 2025.
At AstraZeneca, we are committed to harnessing digital innovation to drive inclusion and equity across the healthcare ecosystem. The WEF EDISON Alliance is a unique platform to further build upon the flagship digital programmes we are pioneering globally with our partners.
We are leveraging the power of digital across our business including through discovering and developing medicines, transforming the early detection of disease, supporting health tech entrepreneurs, training healthcare professionals and helping our employees to manage their health and wellbeing. The latest digital technologies enable us to work more effectively and equitably, in a people and patient-centric way.
Several examples of how we are driving inclusion and equity through digital healthcare are illustrated below:
Improving early-stage diagnosis of lung cancer through AI
By applying artificial intelligence (AI) to chest X-Rays being routinely performed, our partnership with Qure.ai, a health-tech start-up, supports the early detection and diagnosis of lung cancer in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East and Africa.
As part of the EDISON Alliance’s 1 Billion Lives Challenge, we committed to screening 5 million patients through our partnership with Qure.ai by 2025.
In addition, we are partnering with tuberculosis (TB) screening programmes across the world to introduce an Integrated Lung Health Screening approach that leverages existing infrastructure to expand screening programmes cost-effectively.
AstraZeneca has long recognised that digital innovation holds the potential to transform the future of healthcare. We look forward to deepening our collaboration with partners of the WEF EDISON Alliance to accelerate scalable and affordable digital solutions to help improve access to healthcare and transform patient outcomes, especially in underserved communities
Supporting health tech entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa
Through Fuel Africa, a health innovation programme launched by Futurize in partnership with AstraZeneca through the A.Catalyst Network and Microsoft, and co-funded by Bristol Myers Squibb and Famfa Oil, we are connecting the best minds across universities in Sub-Saharan Africa through a virtual, immersive programme and competition to create new healthcare solutions.
Harnessing digital technology has helped to make us one of the largest cross-university and international innovation programmes on the African continent, turning students into entrepreneurs who are generating solutions from AI Breast Cancer Screening to managing diabetes patients through an online platform. Through this partnership, we aim to offer new opportunities for health tech entrepreneurs to connect and collaborate with a truly global network, bolstering healthcare innovation and creativity on the African continent.
Our collaborations with Qure.ai and Fuel Africa both grew from our A.Catalyst Network, a global network of more than 20 of our health innovation hubs committed to advancing cutting-edge science and building a sustainable future.
To date, we have impacted the lives of over two million patients through the A.Catalyst Network.
Training healthcare professionals through our global e-learning platform
As part of our Healthy Heart Africa programme, we have developed a global e-learning, training and medical education platform, AZ Engage.
AZ Engage is accessible now in 15 countries across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, providing healthcare professionals with access to medical content to further their continuous professional development and gain accreditation certificates. The ease of access to the platform via a mobile phone or tablet makes it accessible even in rural areas with basic connectivity, amplifying the accessibility of training and learning opportunities.
Empowering employees to manage their mental health and wellbeing through the HealthyMind App in partnership with Microsoft
We are committed to the mental health and wellbeing of 83,000+ employees around the world. The HealthyMind app, conceptualised by our Safe Space Mental Health Awareness Employee Resource Group and built-in in collaboration with Microsoft, enables our employees to access live links and phone numbers for immediate mental health support in over 70 countries. The app provides a simple design that facilitates quick and easy access to the right information in real-time.
In partnership with Microsoft we are now exploring the development of the second version of HealthyMind to make the framework of the app freely available, driving greater accessibility and empowering more people to take control of their mental health.
Find out more about our approach to digital health here.
Veeva ID: Z2-2905
Date of preparation: May 2022