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, figuring out that any unfinished work meant sufferers must wait one other day for doubtlessly life-saving diagnoses. One colleague, Frank, stored telling me my abilities could be higher used constructing know-how that might 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 know-how, is that innovation means little if it could possibly’t attain the individuals who want it most. Having probably the most superior imaging know-how 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 shortly sufficient to take motion and supply care. Whenever 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 in a different way about every thing.
This batch of Fellows get it. They’re working in environments the place you possibly can’t at all times rely on dependable connectivity, the place financial realities form each choice, the place sufferers could 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 providers from the bottom up. For instance, delivering crucial 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 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 wish to introduce the newest 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 Cellular Clinic, I’ve led a workforce 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 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 programs, 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,” guaranteeing 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 companies to realize a 360-degree understanding of the folks we serve and assist stop billions in support from going unclaimed. I’m grateful for the chance this Fellowship supplies to advance this mission.
Primarily based in: Minneapolis, MN, USA
I lead NextGenU.org’s mission to make high quality training a world 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 companies, universities, hospital programs, 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 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 instructor and baby. 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 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 right this moment. This distinction formed my objective: to assist guarantee each baby – no matter gender, geography, or socio-economic background – has a good probability to dwell the life she chooses. Expertise is my power, and I imagine it may be a strong 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, robust public-private partnerships, and sturdy governance frameworks to make digital transformation applications each impactful and sustainable.
I’m excited to affix the Now Go Construct Fellowship to have interaction with fellow technologists from internationally who’re additionally utilizing their abilities for social affect – and to be taught from their journeys.
Primarily based in: Raleigh, NC, USA
Our Wave was based to construct digital therapeutic and help 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 workforce 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’ve supported survivors in 70 international locations utilizing the facility of scalable cloud computing, which has helped us attain disempowered survivors typically missed by conventional providers. This fellowship supplies 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 neighborhood psychological well being and digital innovation. My focus is on utilizing know-how 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 might be each scalable and domestically grounded. The Fellowship will assist refine these options with international insights, join me with friends tackling comparable challenges in their very own context, and help my purpose of scaling affect via smarter, extra inclusive tech.
Primarily based in: Kenya
Because the Director of Expertise at Jacaranda Well being, I’m pushed by the assumption that no mom or child must 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 workforce on the event of groundbreaking instruments like UlizaLlama, the primary open LLM for 5 African languages, and UlizaMAMA, an AI-powered platform that delivers very important well being data to moms in their very own language. These instruments have enabled thousands and thousands of girls to take a extra lively position of their maternal well being, equipping them with the information 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 guaranteeing each mom and baby has a wholesome future.
A brand new sequence of Now Go Construct is on the way in which
It’s arduous to imagine we’re approaching the primary anniversary of the Fellowship. For the previous 12 months, 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 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!
