Continuing innovations in health and medicine have led to economic growth and a better quality of life for many around the world. But inequalities could grow rapidly.
Innovation and policies related to it are no longer solely the reserve of wealthy countries, as we have seen in more than a decade of the Global Innovation Index (GII). Innovators in developing economies show the world how to do more with less. In India (52), for example, one company has found a way to use accessible technology for early diagnosis of a malady that often strikes premature babies and can blind them if not caught in time. Rather than bringing expensive, complicated equipment to the Indian countryside, Remidio connects compact devices with a smartphone to diagnose retinopathy and enable speedy treatment for babies in far-flung regions.
