Springer Nature and Takeda’s Center of Health Equity and Patient Affairs (HEPA) establish new partnership to drive forwards research ideas and best practice to underpin health equity
Launching with a free panel event bringing together leading thinkers in health equity, the partners have established a programme of activity to enhance understanding of, and empower change around health inequities
London, UK | Cambridge, US, 30th August 2022
Springer Nature – one of the world’s most trusted providers of scientific information – and the Center of Health Equity and Patient Affairs (HEPA) at Takeda (TSE:4502/NYSE:TAK) – a global biopharmaceutical company – today announced a new partnership. Utilizing the publisher’s experience in cutting edge research and Takeda’s commitment to developing innovative products, this partnership aims to raise awareness, educate, and affect change to tackle one of the world's most pressing challenges - health inequality - and make health equity a reality around the world.
“Health equity is one of the most urgent social justice issues of our time,” said Laura Helmuth, editor-in-chief of Scientific American, part of Springer Nature. “For more than 180 years, Springer Nature has been a trusted source for some of the researchers and decision makers who help lead, serve and shape our communities and societies. We know research plays an important role in setting the health agenda globally. Through this partnership with Takeda, we’re able to illuminate the problems and help inspire others to do their part to deliver real progress toward addressing society’s biggest needs.”
Driven by a programme of outreach, this partnership will include: active conversation and debate through roundtable and conference engagement; the development of research hubs and interactive resources across both the leading scientific journal Nature and the consumer magazine, Scientific American; and the launch of a global Nature Award programme - all with the aim of facilitating and supporting adoption of new ideas and best practice, underpinning approaches to global health equity in the long-term.
One key output of this partnership will be a virtual panel on Tuesday 13th September, “Achieving Health Equity Together – Forging the Path Forward.”
The event, which is open to the public free of cost, will explore best practices for advancing health equity locally and globally, as well as providing tangible insights to energize and empower others to address health inequities in their own communities. Visit the conference page to register.
During the panel, speakers* will break down what health equity means (looks and feels like) around the world and share learnings from their own efforts to make communities healthier. In addition to exploring ways people across industries and sectors can collaborate to create a more equitable world for future generations.
“Achieving health equity – where everyone, everywhere has the opportunity to reach their full health potential – is a big goal and unfortunately, we’re nowhere close,” said Charlotte Owens, M.D., Vice President and Head of Takeda’s Center for Health Equity and Patient Affairs. “As the head of this Center of Excellence for Takeda and an obstetrician-gynecologists for over 20 years, I know what happens when people don’t have access to the care they need. We must address the root cause of disparities and inequities at a local level, and work together to create solutions that last. Takeda has been putting patients first since the company’s inception 240 years ago and we’re committed to staying on that path. Springer Nature is an expert when it comes to cutting edge research, which is key to understanding health inequities and identifying equitable solutions. We are excited to work with Springer Nature on this important topic.”
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Panel details:
Laura Helmuth, editor-in-chief of Scientific American, will moderate the discussion.
Panelists include:
- Akin Jimoh, M.D., Chief Editor, Nature Africa
- Alexia-Ilena Zaromytidou, PhD, Chief Editor, Nature Cancer
- Charlotte Owens, M.D., Vice President and Head of the Center for Health Equity and Patient Affairs, Takeda
- Melissa Wu, PhD, CEO, Seeding Labs
- Rebecca (Bek) Cooney, PhD, Chief Editor, Nature Mental Health
- Robert Paulino-Ramirez, M.D., Univerisdad Iberomericanan, Instituto de Medicina Tropical and Salud Global, Dominican Republic
The full agenda and registration link can be found here. Speaker profiles are available here.
Laura Helmuth is the editor in chief of Scientific American, the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. She has previously edited for The Washington Post, National Geographic, Slate, Smithsonian, and Science magazines. Laura serves on the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s standing committee on the science of science communication as well as the advisory boards of 500 Women Scientists and SciLine, a program from the American Association for the Advancement of Science that connects journalists with experts. Laura is also a former president of the U.S. National Association of Science Writers and has a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the University of California at Berkeley. She is active on Twitter at @laurahelmuth.
For over 180 years, Springer Nature has been advancing discovery by providing the best possible service to the whole research community. Springer Nature help researchers uncover new ideas, making sure all the research that is published is significant, robust and stands up to objective scrutiny, that it reaches all relevant audiences in the best possible format, and can be discovered, accessed, used, re-used and shared. Springer Nature is committed to highlighting the issues of health inequality on a global stage and aims to connect researchers and practitioners that are tackling these challenges through its Sustainable Development Goals Programme.
Visit: springernature.com/gp/group and follow @SpringerNature
Takeda is a global, values-based, R&D-driven biopharmaceutical leader headquartered in Japan, committed to discover and deliver life-transforming treatments, guided by our commitment to patients, our people and the planet. Takeda focuses its R&D efforts on four therapeutic areas: Oncology, Rare Genetics and Hematology, Neuroscience, and Gastroenterology (GI). We also make targeted R&D investments in Plasma-Derived Therapies and Vaccines. We are focusing on developing highly innovative medicines that contribute to making a difference in people’s lives by advancing the frontier of new treatment options and leveraging our enhanced collaborative R&D engine and capabilities to create a robust, modality-diverse pipeline. Our employees are committed to improving quality of life for patients and to working with our partners in health care in approximately 80 countries and regions.
For more information, visit https://www.takeda.com.
Through the Takeda Center for Health Equity and Patient Affairs (HEPA), launched in 2020, Takeda is collaborating with diverse partners, including patients, communities and organizations, as well as public and private organizations, to identify and address health inequities in communities. Within Takeda, HEPA sits at the intersection of research and access activities, serving as a center of excellence to all business units. Equity starts with understanding. Once we understand diverse patients’ needs and the communities in which they were born, grow, live, work and age, we can create more inclusive practices and develop innovative medicines that better reflect how patients wish and need to engage with healthcare to achieve their highest level of health.
Katie Baker | Head of Communications, External Communications | Springer Nature | Katie Baker katie.baker@springernature.com
