Varian Medical Systems CEO Dow Wilson Pushes for Healthcare Infrastructure Investment in Africa
- Recommendation Made during Meeting of the President's Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa
PALO ALTO, California, April 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In recommendations submitted to President Barack Obama this week, Dow Wilson, CEO of Varian Medical Systems (NYSE:VAR), and other members of the President's Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa (PAC-DBIA), called for increased flexibility in how international aid is allocated to improve healthcare in Africa.
"The U.S. government needs to provide increased flexibility with its international aid funds in order to increase primary care capacity and strengthen health systems," Wilson said. "Flexibility will allow for multipurpose infrastructure investment to address both immediate healthcare crises as well as long-term healthcare infrastructure gaps. This should improve coordination of care, increase efficiency, and reduce mortality rates from communicable and non-communicable diseases."
"Local needs should be identified through partnerships with key African government and public health officials," Wilson added. "This would provide U.S. firms greater opportunity to provide the needed healthcare infrastructure for the affected countries."
The PAC-DBIA, which includes 15 members representing small, medium, and large companies from a variety of industry sectors, was established by President Obama last year to improve commercial engagement between U.S. companies and Africa. It was created to advise the President, through the Secretary of Commerce, on advancing his DBIA campaign as described in the U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa of June 14, 2012.
Members of the PAC-DBIA delivered a report with eight recommendations at its first meeting in Washington, DC (see Department of Commerce press release of April 8, 2015). The meeting was attended by Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and several high-level Administration officials.
"I am excited to be working with this group of accomplished and knowledgeable people on ways of strengthening commercial engagement between the United States and Africa," Wilson said. "As the CEO of a world-leading supplier of cancer treatment and X-ray imaging technology, I am committed to our company's mission of helping to save lives around the world—a mission that has led us to expand our customer base in Africa and other places where cancer patients tend to be underserved. I know from experience that expanding healthcare infrastructure can foster significant opportunities to increase trade and economic development while increasing critical access to primary care services, diagnosis, and treatment to improve overall population health."
A high resolution image of Dow Wilson is available at this link.
About Varian Medical Systems
Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, focuses energy on saving lives by equipping the world with advanced technology for fighting cancer and for X-ray imaging. The company is the world's leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is also a premier supplier of X-ray imaging components, including tubes, digital detectors, and image processing software and workstations for use in medical, scientific, and industrial settings, as well as for security and non-destructive testing. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 6,800 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America, Europe, and China and approximately 70 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit www.varian.com or follow us on Twitter.
FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Meryl Ginsberg, 650.424.6444
meryl.ginsberg@varian.com
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