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 techniques, 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 probably life-saving diagnoses. One colleague, Frank, stored telling me my abilities could 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 an important issues are human issues.
What I’ve come to grasp, each in healthcare and in know-how, is that innovation means little if it could 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. One of the 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 shortly sufficient to take motion and supply care. While you’re constructing options in locations with restricted assets, you possibly can’t simply scale patterns that work in well-funded areas—it’s important to suppose otherwise about the whole lot.
This batch of Fellows get it. They’re working in environments the place you possibly can’t at all times depend on dependable connectivity, the place financial realities form each choice, the place sufferers is likely to be days away from the closest clinic. And slightly 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 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 simplest 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).
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 Cellular Clinic, I’ve led a staff 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 manager director of ITIS, I assist prepare the subsequent era of African innovators to harness AI and digital instruments for social change. I see the AWS CTO Fellowship as a launchpad to scale resilient techniques, sharpen my technical management, and boldly reimagine what’s doable 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 In the present day and Uniting Them to a More healthy Tomorrow,” guaranteeing each emergency meals intervention is paired with methods to establish and deal with 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 companies to achieve a 360-degree understanding of the individuals we serve and assist forestall billions in support from going unclaimed. I’m grateful for the chance this Fellowship gives to advance this mission.
Primarily based 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 instructing science and math to 10,000 kids throughout West and Central Africa. We create studying supplies in partnership with main UN companies, universities, hospital techniques, and worldwide training companions.
We just lately developed 52 textbooks, workbooks, and instructor guides in a number of languages throughout three international locations, alongside skilled improvement and area 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 instructor and baby. 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.
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 goals – alternatives that also stay out of attain for a lot of kids from my village, even at present. This distinction formed my function: to assist guarantee each baby – no matter gender, geography, or socio-economic background – has a good likelihood 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 rising 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 applications each impactful and sustainable.
I’m excited to hitch the Now Go Construct Fellowship to interact with fellow technologists from internationally who’re additionally utilizing their abilities for social impression – and to study 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 baby abuse – a healthcare disaster that impacts 1 in each 3 ladies and 1 in each 6 males worldwide. As CTO, my staff and I mix trauma-informed medical analysis on therapeutic strategies with innovative AI to pioneer psychological healthcare platforms for survivors. To this point, now we have supported survivors in 70 international locations utilizing the ability of scalable cloud computing, which has helped us attain disempowered survivors usually ignored by conventional providers. This fellowship gives an unimaginable 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 group psychological well being and digital innovation. My focus is on utilizing know-how to streamline knowledge assortment and suggestions techniques for initiatives like Friendship Bench Zimbabwe, serving to us higher perceive and serve our purchasers. 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 might be each scalable and domestically grounded. The Fellowship will assist refine these options with world insights, join me with friends tackling comparable challenges in their very own context, and assist my objective of scaling impression 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 the usage of 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 staff 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 thousands and thousands of customers throughout the continent, and I anticipate the fellowship to extend the impression of my work and attain thousands and 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 exhausting to consider 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 wanting 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!
