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 methods, 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, realizing that any unfinished work meant sufferers must wait one other day for doubtlessly life-saving diagnoses. One colleague, Frank, saved telling me my expertise can be higher used constructing know-how that would assist individuals 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 grasp, each in healthcare and in know-how, is that innovation means little if it may possibly’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 planet are ineffective in the event that they sit in hospitals that individuals can’t attain, or if the outcomes can’t be interpreted rapidly sufficient to take motion and supply care. If you’re constructing options in locations with restricted assets, you may’t simply scale patterns that work in well-funded areas—you need to assume in a different way about every part.
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 determination, the place sufferers could 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 crucial 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 assets. 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 most recent 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 convey healthcare to the frontlines of disaster. As co-founder of Parker’s Cell Clinic, I’ve led a crew that has reached over 150,000 individuals in flood-affected and underserved communities, utilizing AI powered telemedicine and cellular outreach to shut lethal gaps in care. As the chief director of ITIS, I assist prepare the subsequent 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 methods, 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 Right this moment 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 can 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 individuals we serve and assist forestall billions in help from going unclaimed. I’m grateful for the chance this Fellowship supplies 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 employees 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 methods, and worldwide training companions.
We just lately developed 52 textbooks, workbooks, and instructor guides in a number of languages throughout three nations, alongside skilled growth and area 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 method and can facilitate the event of high-quality, localized studying supplies for each instructor and little one. I’m grateful for the chance to affix the Now Go Construct CTO Fellowship and desperate 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 youngsters from my village, even right this moment. This distinction formed my objective: to assist guarantee each little one – no matter gender, geography, or socio-economic background – has a good probability to stay the life she chooses. Expertise is my power, and I consider 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 the usage of 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 affix the Now Go Construct Fellowship to interact with fellow technologists from internationally who’re additionally utilizing their expertise for social influence – and to study from their journeys.
Based mostly in: Raleigh, NC, USA
Our Wave was based to construct digital therapeutic and assist areas for survivors of sexual hurt, home violence, and little one abuse – a healthcare disaster that impacts 1 in each 3 ladies and 1 in each 6 males worldwide. As CTO, my crew and I mix trauma-informed scientific analysis on therapeutic methods with leading edge AI to pioneer psychological healthcare platforms for survivors. Up to now, we now have supported survivors in 70 nations utilizing the facility of scalable cloud computing, which has helped us attain disempowered survivors usually ignored by conventional providers. This fellowship supplies 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 knowledge assortment and suggestions methods for initiatives like Friendship Bench Zimbabwe, serving to us higher perceive and serve our shoppers. I’m tackling challenges round knowledge interoperability, scaling human-centered AI, turning uncooked knowledge into actionable insights and aligning efforts throughout regional groups by constructing instruments which can be each scalable and domestically grounded. The Fellowship will assist refine these options with world insights, join me with friends tackling related challenges in their very own context, and assist my purpose of scaling influence by smarter, extra inclusive tech.
Based mostly in: Kenya
Because the Director of Expertise at Jacaranda Well being, I’m pushed by the idea that no mom or child ought to be left behind. My work is concentrated on harnessing the facility of AI to bridge crucial gaps in maternal and new child healthcare throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
I’ve had the privilege of main an unimaginable crew on the event of groundbreaking instruments like UlizaLlama, the primary open LLM for 5 African languages, and UlizaMAMA, an AI-powered platform that delivers important well being info to moms in their very own language. These instruments have enabled tens of millions of girls to take a extra lively position of their maternal well being, equipping them with the data wanted to navigate being pregnant and childbirth extra safely.
I’m thrilled to affix the Now Go Construct CTO Fellowship to collaborate with different purpose-driven leaders and to speed up our mission of making certain each mom and little one has a wholesome future.
A brand new collection of Now Go Construct is on the way in which
It’s laborious to consider we’re approaching the primary anniversary of the Fellowship. For the previous yr, 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 collection within the coming weeks.
Now, Go Construct!
