The second edition of Innovate4AMR is now here!
Antibiotics are the cornerstone of many miracles in medicine, from cancer chemotherapy to organ donation. The loss of effective antibiotics would mean reverting back to a time when simple infections might become untreatable. That is why IFMSA, ReAct, the World Health Organization, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and South Centre have joined forces to organize Innovate4AMR, the world´s first global innovation challenge in solving antimicrobial resistance.
Antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, occurs when bacteria develop the ability to stop the drugs used to treat them. Each year, 700,000 people die due to drug-resistant infections and, if uncontroled, this number may rise to 10 million deaths a year by 2050 — more than the number of people that die of cancer today.
We invite healthcare student teams from around the world to design innovative and creative solutions that will help address the issues of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) from a systems change perspective. We are looking for competitors to focus on tackling antimicrobial stewardship in low-resource healthcare settings, with the specific objectives of increasing access and reducing inequity.
“We hope to engage and enlist the next generation of leaders in developing innovative, scalable approaches to address the challenge of conserving existing antibiotics. Those in the healthcare sector have a particularly crucial role to play in finding new solutions,” said Anthony So, MD, MPA, Director, ReAct Strategic Policy Program and IDEA (Innovation+Design Enabling Access) Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Finalist teams will attend a capacity building workshop. Each team will be supported to enable up to two members per team to participate. At this conference, teams will have the opportunity to meet with health experts and make connections with groups who could help operationalize their proposed solution.
“As future healthcare professionals, we acknowledge the huge threat and burden of Antimicrobial Resistance and we feel the need to take urgent action. Through Innovate4AMR, we aim to build a community of health students and empower them to tackle AMR in original, effective ways.” – Teodor Cristian Blidaru, Liaison Officer to Student Organizations, IFMSA
The competition’s website provides educational resources, so no prior experience in working on AMR is needed to participate in the competition. Prior to your registration, you can also sign-up for more information about Innovate4AMR! For everything that we have just mentioned and more, please visit Innovate4AMR.org