Tech & Health Archives - Harvard Global Health Institute

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HGHI’s Inaugural Global Health Symposium: April 12th, 2023

The Harvard Global Health Institute is thrilled to announce that registration is now open for virtual attendance to our Inaugural Global Health Symposium! While in person capacity is limited, we invite our longstanding global and Harvard-based community to join us virtually on April 12th, 2023 from 9:00am to 4:00pm ET for a series of conversations centered around the theme “Global Health Equity through Community Engagement.”

Step in Safely: Community-Driven Solutions to COVID-19 in Malaysia

An Interview with Dr. Helmi Zakariah, CEO of AIME When COVID-19 reached Dr. Helmi Zakariah’s home country of Malaysia in January 2020, he was consulting in Brazil as CEO of Artificial Intelligence in Medical Epidemiology (AIME). A trained physician, public health professional, and digital health entrepreneur, Dr. Zakariah found himself in high demand as the [...]

Digital Health Takes Center Stage: How Governments Can Capitalize on Technology During the COVID-19 Pandemic

An Interview with Ann Aerts, Head of the Novartis Foundation As COVID-19 sweeps across the globe and inundates health systems, governments face ongoing pressure to respond swiftly to stop the spread of the virus. While this public health crisis revealed the fragility of many health systems and highlighted weaknesses in governance structures, COVID-19 also shed [...]

From Ebola to COVID-19: Lessons in Digital Contact Tracing in Sierra Leone

Vamba Lolleh is no stranger to using digital health tools for infectious disease response and contract tracing. Yet as COVID-19 spreads, he filled us in on how many of the lessons learned haven’t been as seamless to carry out as hoped. [...]

Increased Demand for Digital Health Tools Helps Bridge Healthcare Provision Gap During COVID-19 Pandemic

An Interview with Sathy Rajasekharan, Jacaranda Health When the first COVID-19 cases began to spring up in Kenya, the government quickly responded with an array of infection prevention measures. While travel restrictions and curfews would help reduce the spread of the disease, there was a several-week gap that left pregnant women and new mothers confused [...]

No One Left Behind: Adapting Digital Programs during COVID

An interview with Mahadia Tunga, Tanzania dLab “There’s a digital divide being witnessed in Africa,” said Mahadia Tunga, Co-Founder and Director of Capacity Development at the Tanzania Data Lab (dLab). While the divide is not new, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how differential access to the internet can shape who receives access to education, and [...]

“Taking AI to the next step”: Q&A with Arsen Muhumuza

Arsen Muhumuza, a student in his final year of medical school at the University of Rwanda, became involved in AI and health through his participation in a 2017 hackathon that helped him generate ideas for how to leverage technology to address health challenges. Since then, Arsen has helped organize multiple events with the goal of [...]

“People have the wrong perception of AI”: Q & A with Richard Kimera

Richard Kimera is a lecturer at Uganda’s Mbarara University of Science and Technology and part of the DASH in Africa organizing team. He also chairs the annual Innovations Tech Summit for Africa, a convening of public, private, and government agencies and research institutions aimed at sharing research innovations and opening channels of communication between government, [...]

The Novartis Foundation: Connecting Minds, Fostering Innovation, and Empowering through Creativity

By Lucy Setian, Digital & AI Stakeholder Engagement Lead, Novartis Foundation The first Data Science & AI Summit (DASH) in Africa would be a first step in building a regional ecosystem for research and innovation that will empower the next generation of entrepreneurs to leverage technology for sustainable and impactful change in their communities. Digital health plays an [...]