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 know-how 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 docs who would keep late into the evening, understanding that any unfinished work meant sufferers must wait one other day for doubtlessly life-saving diagnoses. One colleague, Frank, saved telling me my expertise could be higher used constructing know-how that would assist folks at scale. The transition wasn’t as drastic as you may think, it seems that in each fields a very powerful issues are human issues.
What I’ve come to grasp, each in healthcare and in know-how, is that innovation means little if it will probably’t attain the individuals who want it most. Having essentially the most superior imaging know-how means nothing if sufferers can’t entry it. The very best 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. Whenever you’re constructing options in locations with restricted sources, you may’t simply scale patterns that work in well-funded areas—it’s a must to assume otherwise about every thing.
This batch of Fellows get it. They’re working in environments the place you may’t at all times 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 quite than seeing these as limitations, they’re utilizing them as design constraints to reimagine healthcare and companies from the bottom up. For instance, delivering vital maternal well being info to distant populations with out smartphones, or utilizing off-the-shelf messaging platforms to scale psychological well being companies in areas missing skilled sources. These Fellows are proving that the best options emerge when know-how is formed by the communities that use it.
With that, I’d prefer to introduce the newest batch of Now Go Construct CTO Fellows (in their very own phrases).
Based mostly 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 group that has reached over 150,000 folks in flood-affected and underserved communities, utilizing AI powered telemedicine and cell outreach to shut lethal gaps in care. As the manager director of ITIS, I assist prepare 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 doable for communities usually left behind.
Based mostly in: Orlando, FL, USA
As Chief Expertise 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 At this time and Uniting Them to a More healthy Tomorrow,” making certain each emergency meals intervention is paired with methods to determine and handle the SDOH gaps which might be the basis 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 achieve a 360-degree understanding of the folks we serve and assist forestall billions in assist from going unclaimed. I’m grateful for the chance this Fellowship gives to advance this mission.
Based mostly in: Minneapolis, MN, USA
I lead NextGenU.org’s mission to make high quality training a worldwide public good. Our AWS-powered platform delivers free well being and STEM training 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 kids throughout West and Central Africa. We create studying supplies in partnership with main UN businesses, universities, hospital programs, and worldwide training companions.
We lately developed 52 textbooks, workbooks, and trainer guides in a number of languages throughout three international locations, alongside skilled improvement and discipline analysis, at a fraction of the everyday development-sector prices. Now, we’re constructing the Clever Textbook Machine (ITM), an AI-powered platform that scales this method and can facilitate the event of high-quality, localized studying supplies for each trainer and youngster. I’m grateful for the chance to hitch the Now Go Construct CTO Fellowship and desirous to strengthen the technical management and AWS experience wanted to scale this innovation and assist enhance entry to training worldwide.
Based mostly 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 kids from my village, even in the present day. This distinction formed my goal: to assist guarantee each youngster – no matter gender, geography, or socio-economic background – has a good likelihood to dwell the life she chooses. Expertise is my power, and I imagine it may be a robust 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, training, and different sectors – by growing institutional capability and data-informed decision-making. We promote using open-source digital public items, sturdy 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 have interaction with fellow technologists from the world over who’re additionally utilizing their expertise for social affect – and to study from their journeys.
Based mostly in: Raleigh, NC, USA
Our Wave was based to construct digital therapeutic and help areas for survivors of sexual hurt, home violence, and youngster abuse – a healthcare disaster that impacts 1 in each 3 ladies and 1 in each 6 males worldwide. As CTO, my group and I mix trauma-informed scientific analysis on therapeutic methods with leading edge AI to pioneer psychological healthcare platforms for survivors. Thus far, we now have supported survivors in 70 international locations utilizing the ability of scalable cloud computing, which has helped us attain disempowered survivors usually missed by conventional companies. This fellowship gives an unimaginable alternative to collaborate with fellow innovators for social good and additional hone my management expertise to amplify our mission.
Based mostly in: Harare, Zimbabwe
I’m Sandra Muzambi, working on the intersection of group psychological well being and digital innovation. My focus is on utilizing know-how 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 domestically 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 aim of scaling affect via smarter, extra inclusive tech.
Based mostly in: Kenya
I’m the Director of Expertise 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 group additionally developed UlizaMAMA, a specialised AI that gives pregnant ladies 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 tens of millions of customers throughout the continent, and I anticipate the fellowship to extend the affect of my work and attain tens of millions 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 12 months, I’ve had the privilege of working carefully 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!
