gasworld launches groundbreaking new medical gases event

To be held on 7^th April to coincide with World Health Day, the event will bring together industry and public health leaders under the same digital roof to take the lessons learned from the Covid pandemic and use them to build healthcare systems where access to medical oxygen is the standard everywhere.

As a result, the event has been described by various public health leaders as having first-of-its-kind status. For more information and to register to attend, click here.

‘Exciting, groundbreaking new event’

Under the theme Next Level Healthcare – A World Beyond Covid, confirmed speakers at the event already include: 

• The World Health Organization (WHO)
• USAID
• Access to Medicine Foundation
• UNITAID
• Nippon Gases Europe
• Every Breath Counts

Nippon Gases is a confirmed launch sponsor of the event, recognising the significance of this gathering with its sponsorship of Session 1, focusing on healthcare in Europe.

While a major focus for the day will be on expanding the health reach of liquid oxygen, the event recognises that it is not only access to liquid oxygen that requires action, but so many forms of access to critical medical oxygen/therapeutics and the maintenance of that infrastructure.

Further still, there are huge advances being made in the digitisation of healthcare services and the important cold chain for both pharmaceuticals and vaccines, all of which need wider due discussion and recognition.

Other topics will therefore include: 

• Medical oxygen monographs
• Mobilising essential healthcare sectors
• Telemedicine and digital health
• Maintaining medical gas infrastructure
• A pharma cold chain for the future

Reflecting on the launch of the event, gasworld Global Managing Editor Rob Cockerill – himself an author of a paper on Covid-19 and oxygen shortages last year – described the need for such a gathering of healthcare stakeholders.

“The past two years has on one hand pulled at the frayed threads of supply chains that had for so long gone unnoticed and on the other, demonstrated the great effort, endeavour and ingenuity in rising to escalating demands and meeting new challenges,” he said.

“Who could have foreseen the collaborative international efforts to deliver medical oxygen to India during its darkest hour, for example? How would the initial roll-out of vital Covid vaccines have been administered, without an innovative cold chain to transit those medicines? These are just two examples of the positive stories to emerge from the pandemic, and yet there are some big and fundamental issues in our provision of healthcare that are still be addressed.”

“We need to come together to do just that,” he continued. “The time to do that is right now, while the painful memories and learnings from this pandemic are still so vivid, and before the next big public health emergency. Let’s not forget too, variants of Covid-19 are still pervasive in many regions, particularly LMICs, and people still suffering right now.”

“With the lessons all but learned from the past two years of this pandemic, the time is now to put those lessons into practice and to move forward into a new era in medical gases and healthcare, a world beyond Covid. We believe this exciting, groundbreaking new event is the forum for that action and progress – and we’re delighted to see the immediate support of our speakers and sponsors so far, from the WHO to USAID and Nippon Gases Europe.”