Health & Healthcare

As the Vice President and Director of Scientific and Public Health for GSK’s Vaccines practice, Dr. Len Friedland has a very rewarding job, but his sense of purpose extends beyond his day job to support people in poor health as well as those with limited access to quality healthcare, as a volunteer. “Helping patients feel better and live longer aren’t just words to me—they’re part of who I am. The way I see it, having great science at the company is fantastic, but it means nothing unless we make sure this science benefits the right people,” said Len.

“The worst man-made disaster the world has seen since World War II.” That’s how the United Nations human rights chief has described the ongoing conflict in Syria. The response from international NGOs has been swift, providing food, healthcare, and temporary shelter to the millions of Syrians affected by the conflict, but the challenges these aid organizations face getting humanitarian assistance to those in need have grown more extreme.

Relationships between environmental groups and businesses were not ‘normal’ when I came to Midland, Michigan in 1988 to start my career at The Dow Chemical Company. At best, there were periods of détente, interrupted by conflict, much of which took place in the courtroom or with the media. Had someone suggested that we could find a way to collaborate with environmentalists for mutual benefit, they would have been laughed from the conference room. ‘Tolerate’ was the best we could imagine then. That changed with the Michigan Source Reduction Initiative (MSRI) that launched Dow into a collaborative approach and opened eyes and minds to both the need and power of business to help the world achieve sustainable development.

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon is an award-winning program that challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. Bob Bissen imagines a Solar Decathalon 2.0.

One year after being introduced to Americans at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, My Special Aflac Duck, a robotic comfort provider modeled after the famed Aflac Duck, is helping provide comfort and joy to thousands of children across the country. With more than 100 hospitals and childhood cancer care facilities in the United States registered to order ducks, to date, 2,063 have been distributed to children facing cancer. My Special Aflac Duck is Aflac's latest innovation in its 24-year commitment to children with cancer.

The Medtronic Foundation today announced 12 individuals from around the world as recipients of the 2018 Bakken Invitation. This Medtronic Foundation program recognizes and connects people who “live on, give on and dream on” through their advocacy, contributions to innovation and volunteerism after overcoming health challenges with the help of medical technology.

Four years ago, a disease that rarely made headlines — Ebola — raged in West Africa. There was no vaccine, treatment or cure. Though the initial response was slow, the international community ultimately mobilized resources, developed scientific innovations and promised to make sure a tragedy on the same scale would never happen again.

In 1992, as a young HIV/AIDS researcher in her native Netherlands, Hanneke Schuitemaker, Ph.D., now Vice President, Global Head of Viral Vaccine Discovery and Translational Medicine, Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V., was devoted to learning as much as she could about the disease—and saw her role as that of a researcher, rather than someone who closely interacted with people who were living with HIV.

We are committed to care for people, supply products responsibly and protect the planet with a clear path to the future.

Medtronic has been named to the JUST 100: America’s Best Corporate Citizens list for 2018. Compiled by Forbes and JUST Capital, the list is composed of the nation’s top 100 publicly traded companies that scored highest on a set of criteria measuring areas such as diversity and inclusion, product quality, environmental impact, and philanthropy.