Global forum on research and innovation for health: forum 2015 report

ABSTRACT

Forum 2015 marks many successful firsts in the conduct of global conferences for health research. From its previous title “Global Forum on Health Research,” Forum 2015 evolved its name into “Global Forum on Research and Innovation for Health” as we have begun to look further into the areas of public safety, and the seemingly mundane day to day concerns such as food and shelter which continue to pose newer, unprecedented health challenges in our rapidly advancing world. The success of the Philippines to host this kind of forum for the first time was demonstrated not only by the scale of conference - as it involved over 4000 delegates representing 72 nationalities, but by the greatly expanded scope of such engagement - as it was participated in by people representing various industries, professions, and areas of interest. The various stakeholders involved in Forum 2015 were not simply invited as participants, but contributed greatly to the development of the conference program which offered a wide variety of engagement formats. As such, these organizers from various disciplines utilized their respective specializations or expertise in designing the program around two pillars, namely; Increasing the Effectiveness of Research and innovation for Health, and the Role of Research and Innovation in Improving Health Services to generate discussion into research endeavors that address health and equity issues...