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 a vital problem: healthcare.
The intersection of well being and expertise 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 medical doctors who would keep late into the night time, figuring out 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 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 individuals can’t attain, or if the outcomes can’t be interpreted shortly sufficient to take motion and supply care. Once you’re constructing options in locations with restricted sources, you possibly can’t simply scale patterns that work in well-funded areas—you must suppose otherwise about every thing.
This batch of Fellows get it. They’re working in environments the place you possibly can’t all the time rely on dependable connectivity, the place financial realities form each choice, the place sufferers could be days away from the closest clinic. And reasonably 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 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 deliver 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 cellular outreach to shut lethal gaps in care. As the chief director of ITIS, I assist practice 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 attainable for communities typically 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 now and Uniting Them to a More healthy Tomorrow,” making certain each emergency meals intervention is paired with methods to establish 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 companies to realize a 360-degree understanding of the folks we serve and assist stop 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 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 kids throughout West and Central Africa. We create studying supplies in partnership with main UN companies, universities, hospital techniques, and worldwide schooling companions.
We not too long ago developed 52 textbooks, workbooks, and instructor guides in a number of languages throughout three nations, alongside skilled growth and subject 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 baby. 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 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 goals – alternatives that also stay out of attain for a lot of kids from my village, even immediately. This distinction formed my goal: to assist guarantee each baby – no matter gender, geography, or socio-economic background – has a good likelihood to dwell 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, schooling, and different sectors – by rising institutional capability and data-informed decision-making. We promote using open-source digital public items, sturdy 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 have interaction with fellow technologists from the world over who’re additionally utilizing their abilities for social impression – 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 baby 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 innovative AI to pioneer psychological healthcare platforms for survivors. So far, now we have supported survivors in 70 nations utilizing the ability of scalable cloud computing, which has helped us attain disempowered survivors typically neglected by conventional providers. This fellowship offers 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 expertise to streamline knowledge assortment and suggestions techniques 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 might be each scalable and regionally 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 purpose of scaling impression via 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 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 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 sequence 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 wanting 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!