Dr. Leroy Hood, President, Institute for Systems Biology

Initiative Session Date: October 11, 2005

Summary:
Dr. Leroy Hood started by addressing the inequity of global health. He outlined two main opportunities stemming from developments in predictive, preventive, and personalized health care: First, the health industry will be transformed, thereby increasing productivity; and second, lowering health care costs, thereby making it available to the developing world. Advancements in technology will give us the ability to predict the types of diseases that are likely to impact an individual. New technologies will be available at the fingertips in the homes of individuals. Technology will also transform medicine to become highly personalized. Dr. Hood stated that IGD and business leaders can encourage interest around issues concerning global health and recruit support for developments in the field. We have the ability to become a world leader in distributing and delivering advanced medicine to the rest of the world.

“What this new medicine is going to do for the first time is transform into a downward gradient the cost of health care. And as a consequence…make it possible to… deport our most sophisticated medicines to the developing world.”

    - Dr. Hood, speaking to the Initiative for Global Development

Biography