IPG Health Festival of Science
The IPG Health Festival of Science, hosted by the McCann Health Global Scientific Council at IPG Health, continues to be a major landmark in building a connected scientific community across IPG Health.
Our aim for the event is to inspire, engage, connect and celebrate our scientific community and clients.
IPG Health Festival of Science 2021 sessions included:
To have or not to have: Why health equity matters and how we can all take action
In this session we defined health disparities and health equity, and explored how these have changed over the years.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted systemic deficiencies and the need to further close the equity gap. This need has prompted pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers and healthcare communicators to accelerate their focus on increasing diversity, equity and inclusivity.
We heard from our panel of leading experts about the challenges they face in this area, and their planned actions to improve health equity. We also discussed other important approaches from the industry, such as increasing diversity in the workplace and improving our communication to everyone across the network. But are we all doing enough? And how can we measure true impact? We explored how we, as healthcare communicators, have an important role to play in this critical topic.
Mysteries of the deep: Exploring the microbiome in wellness and disease
What do we really know about the invisible world of trillions of bacteria, viruses and fungi living on and within us?
Only recently have we started to recognize that the microbiome contributes substantially to our health, wellness and diseases – we have barely scratched the surface of understanding its essential synergistic roles.
In this session we dove into recent discoveries and explore key concepts such as the dichotomy of pre/probiotics, antibiotics and promising research efforts.
We heard from some of the world’s leading experts on hot topics ranging from unsuspecting areas of impact, such as autoimmune diseases and mental health, to scientific perspectives on inflammation and other diseases. We also further examined the relationship between the microbiome, the gut and the brain.
The health tech explosion: Exploring the rewards, risk and opportunities
Healthcare has been rapidly advancing through the exploration and adoption of technology. Peri- and post-pandemic, the need for this acceleration was and has been driven not only by desire but also by necessity. Moving forward, how is healthcare going to adapt, embrace and reinvent itself in this new, hybrid world?
With the help of our leading industry and in-house experts, we explored new trends, applications and expectations in the areas of drug discovery, clinical trials, digital therapeutics and patient/healthcare professional engagement.
We asked what we can learn from other industries. For example, how powerful is AI? Should we be excited by it, or afraid of it? And what should we, as healthcare communicators, prepare ourselves for in this brave new world?
Hypersonic healthcare: The accelerating pace of clinical development and demand for data
Has the speed of clinical development, and the accompanying expectations on data availability and change in healthcare provision, accelerated in recent times? One of the most obvious and shining examples of this acceleration is the development of the COVID-19 vaccines, the public’s thirst for information on this topic and how healthcare systems have adapted to meet the demands of vaccinating millions of people per day.
Does the world now expect a new standard in the speed a therapy takes to affect clinical practice? It would seem so, and other endeavors such as rapid translation of research, AI in drug design, big-data placebo populations, pre-print publications and applied behavioral change techniques are on the rise to meet that standard.
We heard from some of the world’s leading experts about the scientific and leadership challenges for those involved in this faster paced clinical research. We considered the future impact and potential implications for those involved in healthcare communications, and the challenges they face when both speed and accuracy are of the essence.
Festival of Science concluded on October 1, 2021. Stay tuned for details about next year.