What role does technology play in improving access to healthcare

Over sixmillion children under the age of five die each year (WHO, 2013a) and over 1,000 women die every day from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth (WHO, 2012a); 63% of all deaths, every year, are due to non-communicable diseases (WHO, 2011). Improving access to health technologies would, in my view, go a long way to reducing mortality rates. Health technologies, which include medicines, vaccines and medical devices, are an indispensable component of effective healthcare systems. Medical devices in particular are crucial to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness and disease as well as for patient rehabilitation. However, in many instances patients simply do not have access to these technologies. In this editorial, I drawonmy global experienceworkingwith GEHealthcare to examine the reasons for this, ways of addressing the barriers, and highlight specific examples of medical devices that have proven their worth.