Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates spends most of his time helping the causes that are supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. One of those projects is an effort to rid the world of polio by the year 2018. In a new interview, Gates talks about how that might be accomplished via new technologies that could be used to make better vaccines.
AllThingsD.com reports that Gates, through his foundation, has helped to fund research projects on new vaccines because the big drug companies are sometimes not willing to do the work, saying, "There is an under-investment in general, particularly in doing things for the poorest ... Usually, there is a missing market incentive."
Some of those research efforts include creating a new kind of thermos that can keep vaccines cold with lower energy requirements, along with another effort that is aiming to keep vaccines viable at higher temperatures. Yet another project could combine several different vaccines in one shot.
Gates also supports a project to improve satellite mapping, which would allow health care workers to find where vaccines are needed on the ground in remote locations. However, he also admits that, while recording patient records and data on smartphones sounds like a good idea, the old fashioned piece of paper is still needed in some locations were there are few wireless connections. Gates said, "It’s a high threshold to get rid of that and use cell phones."
Source: AllThingsD.com | Image via Microsoft