Professor Dame Sally Davies, England’s chief medical officer, will be the second keynote speaker for the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) 2016, taking place in Doha on November 29 and 30.
Davies will join renowned economist Lawrence H Summers, Charles W Eliot University professor and president emeritus at Harvard University, the other keynote speaker.
“WISH 2016 is an important forum for health experts from around the world to discuss the challenges that we face as a global community, and to discover innovative new ways to solve them,” she said.
“I will be focusing on the growing issue of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and look forward to new perspectives on how we can galvanise global action to tackle this threat,” added Davies, who will be speaking on the first day of the summit.
She is the most senior independent adviser to the UK government on medical matters, with particular responsibilities regarding public and global health.
Davies was previously the chief scientific adviser for the Department of Health from 2004, where she founded the National Institute for Health Research.
She sits on the World Health Organisation executive board. She advises many governments on health and policy, holding positions on a number of boards and groups, including the Singapore A Star International Advisory Group and the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Board.
In 2013, she published a report on infectious diseases, bringing renewed focus to the increasing threat of AMR, and calling for action to address the key areas of stewardship, monitoring and surveillance, and antibiotic development.  
Since its publication, Davies continues to advocate globally on AMR with a recent high-level meeting at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.
The recent UN General Assembly Declaration on AMR underlined that all countries need to work with each other, as well as with civil society and industry, to prevent infection, find new antibiotics and diagnostics and encourage responsible use of drugs already in use.
WISH CEO Egbert Schillings described Davies’ leadership “on the issue of AMR in global health is unmatched; from her publication The Drugs Don’t Work to her tireless advocacy around the world and in every health policy forum”.
The summit will feature innovation showcases from around the world that are shaping the design, delivery and financing of care, as well as a cohort of young innovators: emerging healthcare leaders under the age of 30, whose contributions to global health deserve wider recognition.
The summit will also feature nine panels and research papers that highlight and address some of the world’s most pressing healthcare challenges, including accountable care, autism, behavioural insights, cardiovascular disease, genomics in the Gulf region and Islamic ethics, health professional education, healthy populations, investing in health, and precision medicine.
Internationally-renowned experts will chair the discussions. For the first time, WISH will also report on its impact locally and globally, on issues previously highlighted at the conference, such as diabetes and patient safety.