Dame Sally to deliver keynote speech at WISH summit

The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) has announced Professor Dame Sally Davies, (pictured) England’s Chief Medical Officer, as the second keynote speaker for the 2016 Summit.

Dame Sally will join renowned economist Lawrence H Summers, the Charles W Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus at Harvard University, as a keynote speaker for the event, which will take place in Doha on November 29 and 30.

Dame Sally is the most senior independent advisor to the UK government on medical matters, with particular responsibilities regarding public and global health. She was previously the Chief Scientific Advisor for the Department of Health from 2004, where she founded the National Institute for Health Research.

Dame Sally sits on the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board. She advises many governments on health and policy, holding positions on a number of boards and groups, including the Singapore A Star International Advisory Group and the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Board.

In 2013, Dame Sally published a report on infectious diseases bringing renewed focus to the increasing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and calling for action to address the key areas of stewardship, monitoring and surveillance, and antibiotic development. Since this publication, Dame Sally continues to advocate globally on AMR with a recent high-level meeting at the United Nations General Assembly. She was chair of the 2013 WISH AMR forum and is chair of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on AMR to the WHO.

The recent United Nations General Assembly Declaration on AMR underlined that all countries need to work with each other, as well as with civil society and industry, to prevent infection, find new antibiotics and diagnostics and encourage responsible use of drugs already in use. Dame Sally will outline what action needs to be taken now to heed the UN call and what are the challenges that we still face as a global community. She will be speaking on the first day of the WISH Summit.