GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - Today, alongside the 77th World Health Assembly in Geneva, the World Economic Forum hosted a high-level side event to launch the Biosecurity Readiness through Intelligence, Data, and Global Engagement (BRIDGE) Alliance to support and enable a global collaborative, sustainable network that enhances disease intelligence, improves outbreak response, population health, economic resilience, and global health security.
Wilmot James, PhD, senior adviser to the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, will serve as Academic Chair of the new initiative. “I am eager to build on existing efforts to strengthen, expand and upscale disease surveillance and biosecurity systems by drawing on the special assets of the private sector with the countries associated with the initiative, starting in Africa, ” said James.
“We’re excited to announce the launch of the BRIDGE Alliance, one of the newest efforts of the World Economic Forum’s Health and Healthcare Centre,” said Lora du Moulin, Global Health and Security Lead at the World Economic Forum. “As the world enters a new era where risk of emerging pathogenic threats is on the rise, many organizations are building on the capabilities and infrastructure from the COVID-19 Pandemic. Join us as we bring together leaders from diverse sectors to identify new business models and use cases for disease monitoring and explore ways for how they can strengthen existing efforts.”
BRIDGE defines its mission as one to catalyze cross-sectoral networks that integrate diverse data sources to enhance predictive outbreak monitoring and public health interventions. It launches with three stated goals:
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to strengthen surveillance for emerging and evolving biological risks by integrating diverse data sources and leveraging new technologies such as artificial intelligence to enhance predictive outbreak monitoring;
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to demonstrate the value of an integrated disease intelligence network by identifying and expanding use cases that improve population health, strengthen health security, and provide economic and societal benefits across sectors;
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and to partner with countries to co-design scalable, localizable prototypes of interoperable, multi-sectoral disease surveillance networks that enhance early warning and detection capabilities and enable more effective public health interventions and achievement of the 100 Day (vaccine production) Mission.
To achieve its aims, BRIDGE will develop a stepwise process to co-design with key stakeholders an interoperable disease intelligence network. The approach will be deliberate in its engagement with country governments including relevant ministries (e.g. defense, health, finance, agriculture, justice) as well as national and multi-national private sector stakeholders from across industries.
The solution will be additive to other national, regional and global efforts to strengthen disease intelligence, specifically focused on catalyzing public-private partnerships and will be designed from the outset with a view to scale by building in the ability for future connectivity and expandability with additional private and public sector entities. Developing a fit-for- purpose and future proof solution with country stakeholders in the lead will help ensure the resulting capability addresses potential sensitivities around sharing of data and data insights.
The side event took place today, 28 May 2024, 8:00 - 9:30am CEST at the World Economic Forum’s Villa Mundi, Geneva, Switzerland.