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 docs who would keep late into the night time, understanding that any unfinished work meant sufferers must wait one other day for doubtlessly life-saving diagnoses. One colleague, Frank, stored telling me my abilities can 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 a very powerful 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 essentially the most superior imaging expertise means nothing if sufferers can’t entry it. One of the 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 rapidly 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 suppose otherwise about every thing.
This batch of Fellows get it. They’re working in environments the place you may’t all the time rely on dependable connectivity, the place financial realities form each resolution, the place sufferers is likely to be days away from the closest clinic. And fairly than seeing these as limitations, they’re utilizing them as design constraints to reimagine healthcare and providers from the bottom up. For instance, delivering vital maternal well being data 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 simplest options emerge when expertise 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).
Primarily based 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 folks 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 practice 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 programs, sharpen my technical management, and boldly reimagine what’s potential for communities usually left behind.
Primarily based 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 establish and tackle 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 companies to achieve a 360-degree understanding of the folks we serve and assist stop billions in assist 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 world 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 companies, universities, hospital programs, and worldwide schooling companions.
We just lately developed 52 textbooks, workbooks, and instructor guides in a number of languages throughout three nations, alongside skilled growth 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 strategy and can facilitate the event of high-quality, localized studying supplies for each instructor and youngster. I’m grateful for the chance to affix 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 as we speak. This distinction formed my objective: to assist guarantee each youngster – no matter gender, geography, or socio-economic background – has a good probability to reside the life she chooses. Expertise is my energy, 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, schooling, and different sectors – by rising institutional capability and data-informed decision-making. We promote using open-source digital public items, robust public-private partnerships, and sturdy 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 the world over who’re additionally utilizing their abilities for social influence – and to be taught from their journeys.
Primarily based in: Raleigh, NC, USA
Our Wave was based to construct digital therapeutic and assist 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 crew and I mix trauma-informed medical analysis on therapeutic methods with leading edge AI to pioneer psychological healthcare platforms for survivors. To this point, we now have supported survivors in 70 nations utilizing the ability of scalable cloud computing, which has helped us attain disempowered survivors usually missed by conventional providers. This fellowship offers an unbelievable alternative to collaborate with fellow innovators for social good and additional hone my management abilities to amplify our mission.
Primarily based in: Harare, Zimbabwe
I’m Sandra Muzambi, working on the intersection of neighborhood psychological well being and digital innovation. My focus is on utilizing expertise to streamline knowledge assortment and suggestions programs 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 aim of scaling influence by means of smarter, extra inclusive tech.
Primarily based 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 at present main the event of open Swahili Voice AI fashions. At Jacaranda, my crew additionally developed UlizaMAMA, a specialised AI that gives pregnant ladies and new moms with almost 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 collection of Now Go Construct is on the way in which
It’s onerous 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!
