GPI Global Policy Institute

December 26, 2024 - As we approach the end of 2024, the integration of AI in the U.S. healthcare sector continues to evolve dynamically. An article by DLA Piper provides some insights about the latest moves in Congress regarding AI in healthcare. This revealed increased activity within Congress and federal agencies around the topics of drug development, care delivery, and insurance coverage, thus reflecting a growing recognition of AI’s transformative potential in patient care, medical research, and healthcare economics nationwide.

December 18, 2024 - Imagine an extended bottle cap that contains filtering agents capable of making polluted water drinkable. The cap has two ends. You screw one end on an empty plastic water and on the other end you screw another plastic bottle containing dirty water. You hold the bottle with the contaminated water up and gravity will make it go through the built-in filter. This way, thanks to the filtering, clean, safe water flows into the empty bottle below. This ingenious, small size and light weight device is made by a company based in South America called Filter Caps.

December 16, 2024 - A great deal of money has been and is invested in the “wellness” industry around the world. Some of it goes into longevity therapies: supplements, treatments, and/or lifestyle changes that will allow humans to live much longer, without any of the ailments and impediments that we normally associate with aging, in terms of pain, reduced muscle strength and chronic diseases.

December 9, 2024 - An article published by MIT News, (A prosthesis driven by the nervous system helps people with amputation walk naturally, by Anne Trafton, July 1, 2024), describes the new frontiers of artificial limbs. Advanced electronics, blended with careful connections with the persons muscles, can create an almost perfect artificial limb that allows a “natural” way of walking or climbing the stairs for a person using a prosthetic leg. As the article puts it: “A new surgical procedure gives people more neural feedback from their residual limb. With it, seven patients walked more naturally and navigated obstacles.”

December 4, 2024 - Some consumers today can buy and safely consume great tasting beer made with recycled wastewater. True or false? It is actually a true story. While some may find the idea of drinking any beverage made with recycled sewer water distasteful, if not abhorrent, this is now fully accepted by many. Brewerkz, a Singapore based brewery, a while ago launched NewBrew, a beer made using wastewater fully treated by PUB, Singapore National Water Agency. As Brewerkz says on its website:

November 25, 2024 - Some may remember the story of Elizabeth Holmes, the very young American entrepreneur, Stanford University dropout, who founded Theranos, a company that supposedly was able to manufacture blood test equipment that allowed to perform scores of blood tests utilizing only a drop of blood.

July 14, 2022 - Issue Brief by Ziv Harish. It has been said that American urine is the most expensive in the world due to the many expensive vitamins and supplements that we consume, but which our bodies do not absorb. The same may be said about American garbage, into which we dump millions of dollars’ worth of unused medications simply because they are past their marked expiration dates.

May 06, 2020. Issue Brief by GPI Senior Advisor Loren B. Thompson. The U.S. Army has done a remarkably effective job of responding to COVID-19. It has minimized the spread of the viral infection within its ranks, and helped local communities to cope with a surge in cases. So what lessons have Army leaders learned to date from their campaign to defeat the virus? Here are eight: (1) listen to soldiers in the field, (2) don’t wait to make hard choices, (3) discipline makes a difference, (4) keep the threat in perspective, (5) there’s no substitute for organic expertise, (6) you can’t contract for bravery, (7) be sensitive to community impacts, and (8) adapt to keep core missions on track. I have written a commentary for Forbes.

May 02, 2020. Issue Brief by Daniel Goure. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught all Americans about the importance of critical infrastructure and essential workers to our survival, as individuals and as a nation. Clearly, our health care system, encompassing hospitals, medical supply providers, pharmaceutical companies, scientists, doctors, nurses, technicians, support staff, and emergency response personnel, is at the top of the list. So too are the companies and people involved in the food supply chain from farm to table. Related to these two sectors is the transportation network: roads, rails and air transport, certainly, but also the delivery companies and truckers that continue to bring orders to our front doors throughout the crisis. Likewise, our communications infrastructure, particularly internet companies, cloud providers and content producers. A company that bridges virtually all of these critical infrastructure sectors is Amazon. Along with a unique class of private companies such as UPS, Walmart and Microsoft, they have been an essential part of the infrastructure that has held this country together.

May 03, 2020. Issue Brief by Lucian Pugliaresi. As government officials consider relaxing the lockdown of the national economy, there remains concern among many in the population that the risks of dying from Covid-19 are too high and that government decisions authorizing a return to work are premature. Putting aside the trauma and associated pain and suffering from contracting the virus, the central concern is whether people would likely lose their lives by returning to work, going to a restaurant, or even visiting the hair salon or gym. At the same time, the economic costs of the lockdown are imposing catastrophic and long-term damage to the national economy.

April 28, 2020. Issue Brief by GPI President Paolo von Schirach. WASHINGTON – Nobody is prescient. No one could have foreseen the timing and the extent of the coronavirus pandemic explosion which originated in China and then from there spread all over the world. However, as I noted elsewhere, the US was especially vulnerable, because it was utterly unprepared to meet any public health emergency.

April 23, 2020. Issue Brief by GPI President Paolo Von Schirach. WASHINGTON – Here is the hard truth. America had no plan designed for national health emergencies that could be activated as soon as policy-makers realized the threat of coronavirus. There was almost nothing in place. There was no “early warning system” that would sound the alarm. There was no structure, no prepositioned equipment that could be deployed to crisis points. No well oiled chain of command.