The Context of NTDs
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) infect more than a billion people in over 145 tropical and subtropical countries. These diseases mainly affect populations living in poverty with little access to sanitation or hygiene, or those in close proximity to livestock and infectious pathogens. We can achieve control of NTDs through timely detection, the implementation of comprehensive treatment strategies (preventative and therapeutic), morbidity management, and solutions to prevent transmission.
Our Innovative Approach: Lean Experimentation and Translational Research
Effective diagnostic, treatment and management solutions for NTDs emerge through innovative research and learning from other successful disease management models. Testing innovative ideas through American Leprosy Missions’ lean approach—designing, prototyping and testing a minimum viable product with strong potential for piloting and scale-up—creates avenues for translational research and new solutions. This process responds to resource-limited, NTD-endemic settings, representing a way forward in combating NTDs.
At American Leprosy Missions, we direct our research and innovation strategy toward specific goals:
Drugs and Vaccines - Developing effective drugs and vaccines to treat and prevent leprosy.
Diagnostics - Testing point-of-care and field-friendly diagnostic tools for rapid and accurate diagnosis of NTDs.
Devices - Developing tools for morbidity management and disability prevention.
Digital Health - Mapping NTDs for targeted preventative and therapeutic interventions; collaborative development and deployment of mapping and digital health applications.
Disability Management - Operational research and capacity building for disability management and prevention of NTDs.
In the same way, we translate research findings into practice through particular pathways:
Tooling - To refine or optimize new and existing innovative research solutions in order to address the gaps in prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of NTDs.
Training - To train personnel on the ground in innovative research solutions so as to enable their implementation.
Transferring - To transfer innovative solutions and technology to the point-of-need setting.
Trading: To develop a business model around innovative solutions to facilitate sustainability and scale-up.
These goals for translational research and implementation guide American Leprosy Missions’ pursuit of innovative solutions to combat NTDs.
Dr. Sundeep Chaitanya and Dr. Madhusmita Das testing a diagnostic device for field sample analysis at The Schieffelin Institute of Health Research and Leprosy Center, Tamil Nadu, India .
Implementing Solutions With Partners
Thanks to strong relationships with implementing partners and research collaborators around the world, we’re able to utilize a model of translational research. Our operational model connects academic and research centers with laboratories and hospitals in NTD-endemic countries to foster collaborative research and faster execution. At the same time, we emphasize translation through clinical and lab networks that convey research findings through the World Health Organization, ministries of health, national NTD programs and local hospitals. We utilize the bench-bedside-community principle in order to bring innovative solutions directly to the communities that need them most.
Frequently, the disease burden for NTDs rests on growing economies, creating an imbalance both in global health and livelihoods. This connective model for translational research not only effectively conducts groundbreaking treatments and methods to affected communities, but it distributes the burden for ending NTDs across the developed world, acknowledging the status of NTDs as a global, not localized, health concern. Combatting these diseases requires investment and commitment from institutions across the world, and our model creates avenues for that commitment. Collaboration and innovation aren’t simply popular catchphrases: we use this approach to pursue solutions because we believe every affected person matters. With each component of our model, we aim for the most effective way forward to end NTDs and restore people affected to lives of dignity and hope.
Sundeep Chaitanya, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Director of Research and Innovation
American Leprosy Missions
Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge