Following within the footsteps of our first two cohorts — Catastrophe Administration and Local weather Resilience — the Now Go Construct CTO Fellowship welcomes seven new fellows tackling an important problem: healthcare.
The intersection of well being and expertise is essential to me. Earlier than I began constructing distributed programs, I used to be a radiologist on the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital within the Netherlands. I labored alongside passionate medical doctors who would keep late into the night time, realizing that any unfinished work meant sufferers must wait one other day for doubtlessly life-saving diagnoses. One colleague, Frank, stored telling me my expertise could be higher used constructing expertise that would assist folks at scale. The transition wasn’t as drastic as you may think, it seems that in each fields crucial issues are human issues.
What I’ve come to know, each in healthcare and in expertise, is that innovation means little if it may’t attain the individuals who want it most. Having probably the most superior imaging expertise means nothing if sufferers can’t entry it. The most effective diagnostic instruments on the earth are ineffective in the event that they sit in hospitals that folks can’t attain, or if the outcomes can’t be interpreted shortly sufficient to take motion and supply care. If you’re constructing options in locations with restricted sources, you may’t simply scale patterns that work in well-funded areas—you need to assume in another way about every little thing.
This batch of Fellows get it. They’re working in environments the place you may’t all the time depend on dependable connectivity, the place financial realities form each resolution, the place sufferers is likely to be days away from the closest clinic. And moderately than seeing these as limitations, they’re utilizing them as design constraints to reimagine healthcare and providers from the bottom up. For instance, delivering important maternal well being info to distant populations with out smartphones, or utilizing off-the-shelf messaging platforms to scale psychological well being providers in areas missing skilled sources. These Fellows are proving that the best options emerge when expertise is formed by the communities that use it.
With that, I’d wish to introduce the most recent batch of Now Go Construct CTO Fellows (in their very own phrases).
Primarily based in: Abuja, Nigeria
I’ve spent the final eight years turning adversity into motion, constructing tech-powered options that carry healthcare to the frontlines of disaster. As co-founder of Parker’s Cell Clinic, I’ve led a staff that has reached over 150,000 folks in flood-affected and underserved communities, utilizing AI powered telemedicine and cellular outreach to shut lethal gaps in care. As the manager director of ITIS, I assist practice the following technology of African innovators to harness AI and digital instruments for social change. I see the AWS CTO Fellowship as a launchpad to scale resilient programs, sharpen my technical management, and boldly reimagine what’s potential for communities typically left behind.
Primarily based in: Orlando, FL, USA
As Chief Know-how Officer at U.S. Starvation, I’m main the cost to undertake cloud and AI-driven options in pursuit of our mission to attach meals help, social care, and healthcare nationwide. I’m dedicated to our imaginative and prescient of “Feeding Households Right this moment and Uniting Them to a More healthy Tomorrow,” making certain each emergency meals intervention is paired with methods to determine and deal with the SDOH gaps which might be the foundation causes of meals insecurity. Utilizing meals as a gateway, our platforms ship actionable insights and real-time metrics to attach households with social advantages, empowering organizations and businesses to realize a 360-degree understanding of the folks we serve and assist forestall billions in help from going unclaimed. I’m grateful for the chance this Fellowship offers to advance this mission.
Primarily based in: Minneapolis, MN, USA
I lead NextGenU.org’s mission to make high quality schooling a worldwide public good. Our AWS-powered platform delivers free well being and STEM schooling to over 600,000 learners worldwide, from coaching greater than 100,000 healthcare staff within the DRC to educating science and math to 10,000 youngsters throughout West and Central Africa. We create studying supplies in partnership with main UN businesses, universities, hospital programs, and worldwide schooling companions.
We just lately developed 52 textbooks, workbooks, and trainer guides in a number of languages throughout three nations, alongside skilled improvement and subject analysis, at a fraction of the standard development-sector prices. Now, we’re constructing the Clever Textbook Machine (ITM), an AI-powered platform that scales this strategy and can facilitate the event of high-quality, localized studying supplies for each trainer and baby. I’m grateful for the chance to hitch the Now Go Construct CTO Fellowship and wanting to strengthen the technical management and AWS experience wanted to scale this innovation and assist enhance entry to schooling worldwide.
Primarily based in: California, USA
I grew up in a distant village in southern India; our household had little past sufficient meals to get by. I’ve been lucky to earn a level and chase my desires – alternatives that also stay out of attain for a lot of youngsters from my village, even in the present day. This distinction formed my function: to assist guarantee each baby – no matter gender, geography, or socio-economic background – has a good probability to dwell the life she chooses. Know-how is my power, and I imagine it may be a strong equalizer when utilized with intent.
At Piramal Basis, we work with authorities departments to assist them undertake digital applied sciences and AI to enhance public service supply – throughout well being, schooling, and different sectors – by growing institutional capability and data-informed decision-making. We promote using open-source digital public items, robust public-private partnerships, and strong governance frameworks to make digital transformation packages each impactful and sustainable.
I’m excited to hitch the Now Go Construct Fellowship to interact with fellow technologists from the world over who’re additionally utilizing their expertise for social influence – and to study from their journeys.
Primarily based in: Raleigh, NC, USA
Our Wave was based to construct digital therapeutic and help areas for survivors of sexual hurt, home violence, and baby abuse – a healthcare disaster that impacts 1 in each 3 girls and 1 in each 6 males worldwide. As CTO, my staff and I mix trauma-informed scientific analysis on therapeutic strategies with innovative AI to pioneer psychological healthcare platforms for survivors. So far, we have now supported survivors in 70 nations utilizing the ability of scalable cloud computing, which has helped us attain disempowered survivors typically ignored by conventional providers. This fellowship offers an unimaginable alternative to collaborate with fellow innovators for social good and additional hone my management expertise to amplify our mission.
Primarily based in: Harare, Zimbabwe
I’m Sandra Muzambi, working on the intersection of group psychological well being and digital innovation. My focus is on utilizing expertise to streamline information assortment and suggestions programs for initiatives like Friendship Bench Zimbabwe, serving to us higher perceive and serve our shoppers. I’m tackling challenges round information interoperability, scaling human-centered AI, turning uncooked information into actionable insights and aligning efforts throughout regional groups by constructing instruments which might be each scalable and regionally grounded. The Fellowship will assist refine these options with international insights, join me with friends tackling related challenges in their very own context, and help my purpose of scaling influence by smarter, extra inclusive tech.
Primarily based in: Kenya
I’m the Director of Know-how at Jacaranda Well being, the place I pioneer using AI to enhance maternal and new child well being outcomes throughout Sub Saharan Africa. I led the creation of UlizaLlama, the primary open LLM for 5 African languages, and am presently main the event of open Swahili Voice AI fashions. At Jacaranda, my staff additionally developed UlizaMAMA, a specialised AI that gives pregnant girls and new moms with practically instantaneous responses to their well being queries. My management has been a key a part of scaling Jacaranda’s digital well being platform to serve hundreds of thousands of customers throughout the continent, and I anticipate the fellowship to extend the influence of my work and attain hundreds of thousands of extra moms throughout the continent and past.
A brand new sequence of Now Go Construct is on the best way
It’s laborious to imagine we’re approaching the primary anniversary of the Fellowship. For the previous yr, I’ve had the privilege of working intently with our inaugural Fellows in Catastrophe Administration and Local weather Resilience, and their work has been nothing in need of inspiring. And I’m excited to share their tales with the launch of a brand new Now Go Construct sequence within the coming weeks.
Now, Go Construct!
