Male birth control is here
In our industry, we don’t quite talk enough about a pressing global health issue:
Climate change.
Last month’s COP28 climate conference in Dubai raised the alarm on the state of many climate change-related health perils, including:
- Extreme heat and weather disasters
- Food scarcity
- Mosquito-borne diseases
Among them, one challenge stood out as especially crucial for the medtech industry to grapple with: air pollution.
There’s no denying air pollution has a serious, deleterious effect on human health worldwide. The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) lists air pollution as one of the leading risk factors for death worldwide—number four behind hypertension, malnutrition, and diabetes.
From asthma rates in the South Bronx to lowered life expectancy in Delhi, the inequitable health impacts of air pollution make their marks on individual lungs and entire communities.
So I ask you, MedTech Pulse readers: What are we going to do about it?
For one, as a health-focused innovation space, we must champion the existing tech solutions for fighting air pollution. These include:
- Pollution control devices, including carbon capture and storage technology
- Masks and PPE, much like those the public became more familiar with since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic
- AI-enabled air quality forecasting
- Eco startups, including those working on reforestation and tree-enabled carbon control
At the same time, it’s important to also take a long, hard look at our own industry when it comes to fighting climate change. Medtech has a complicated history with air pollution.
On one hand, our work developing innovative solutions for respiratory conditions or even particulate matter detection is great. But it’s not enough. We must also hold players in our industry accountable, to support calls to curb emissions from our own industry’s manufacturing.
In this week’s newsletter, we’re discussing male birth control, needle-free vaccine alternatives, and digital therapeutics. What these three stories share is their absolute reliance, not just on solid science—but also on a cultural will for these innovations.
When it comes to fighting air pollution, the cultural will is there. It’s up to us to take it seriously and increase our urgency. Our lungs and lives depend on it.
