“To AI or Not to AI: Image-Based Diagnostics for Post-Cesarean Delivery Infections in Rural Rwanda” In rural Rwanda, 11% of women who deliver via c-section develop a surgical site infection (SSI). Delays in SSI diagnosis and treatment can lead to severe morbidity and mortality among mothers. Our team is assessing ways to leverage the existing network of community health workers (CHWs) to improve post-c-section follow-up with a focus on timely identification of SSIs. We will briefly discuss an image-based diagnostic tool that uses artificial intelligence to diagnose infection based on CHW-generated photos of the c-section incision. The talk will also outline the often forgotten but extremely important questions around the utility of this AI-based diagnostic tool, namely the appropriateness, value-added, feasibility, acceptability, and scalability of this intervention in the context of health care delivery in rural Africa.         Dr. Bethany Hedt-Gauthier is a Biostatistician and an Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine (Harvard Medical School) and Biostatistics (Harvard Chan School). Her primary research interests include quantifying the health needs of and evaluating programs targeting marginalized populations, with a focus on global surgery research. Bethany was resident in Rwanda for 3.5 years and continues to support research capacity building work at Partners In Health/Rwanda, the University of Global Health Equity, and the University of Rwanda. She also leads research related to provision of cesarean sections and outcomes at rural district hospitals in Rwanda with co-PIs Fredrick Kateera and Robert Riviello. Dr. Rich Fletcher leads the Mobile Technology Lab based at D-Lab, which develops a variety of mobile sensors, analytic tools, and diagnostic algorithms to study problems in global health and behavior medicine. Rich has done field work in over a dozen developing countries and currently leads several research efforts in the area of global health, agriculture, environmental monitoring, behavior medicine, and mental health. Rich has worked for over 20 years in the field of wireless sensors and RFID, including five years with the US Air Force and 15 years at the MIT Media Lab, producing over a dozen US patents and several spin-off companies. In the field of medicine, Rich Fletcher currently leads several research studies funded by NIH, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, Vodafone and the Tata Trust. Bridging together the fields of engineering and medicine, Rich’s research utilizes a variety of mobile technologies and wearable sensors for use in behavior monitoring as well as psychological and behavioral interventions.

Patrick Boyle is the Head of Codebase at Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston-based synthetic biology company that makes and sells engineered organisms. Patrick is responsible for Ginkgo’s Codebase, the company’s complete portfolio of reusable biological assets. Codebase includes novel strains, enzymes, genetic parts, and diverse genetic repositories, including millions of engineered DNA sequences. Codebase is being developed, maintained, and leveraged by Ginkgo’s Organism Engineers via dozens of strain engineering projects. Prior to leading Codebase, Patrick founded the Design group at Ginkgo, which now produces hundreds of millions of base pairs of DNA designs each year to support Ginkgo’s projects. At present, more than 30% of the world’s DNA synthesis is performed for work at Ginkgo. Patrick also participates in a number of efforts related to the broader development of synthetic biology and biosecurity. This includes a fellowship in the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security Initiative, serving as a Technical Advisor to the Synthetic Biology for Military Environments program for the Department of Defense, and co-authoring the 2018 “Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology” report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Prior to Ginkgo, Patrick received his PhD from Harvard Medical School in 2012, developing synthetic biology applications in bacteria, yeast, and plants in the lab of Dr. Pamela Silver. He received an SB in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006.

“Governing the Rise of AI: A Unique Global Governance Challenge”  The rise of Artificial Intelligence as a general purpose technology exhibits characteristics of velocity and magnitude probably not seen in earlier major techno-industrial revolutions. The great upsides and severe downsides it generates are inextricably connected, requiring a complex governance effort to capture opportunities while minimizing risks and spreading the gains widely. The case of healthcare lies at the center of this conundrum with an abundance of use-cases ranging from diagnostic, prevention, to therapy. Because the AI revolution is a global phenomenon nested in the wider digital socio-economic paradigm, the governance effort will have to mobilize public and private actors as well as citizens internationally and transnationally in new and innovative ways. We will discuss possible pathways, solutions, strategies and challenges. Nicolas Miailhe co-founded The Future Society in 2014 and incubated it at the Harvard  Kennedy School of Government. An independent think-and-do-tank, The Future Society specializes in questions of impact and governance of emerging technologies, starting with Artificial Intelligence through its “AI Initiative” launched in 2015. A recognized strategist, thought-leader, and implementer, Nicolas has lectured around the world, and advises multinationals, governments and international organizations. He is the co-Convener of the Global Governance of AI Roundtable (GGAR) organized yearly during the World Government Summit in Dubai, as well as a member of the AI Group of experts at OECD (AIGO), of the World Bank’s Digital Economy for All Initiative (DE4ALL), and of the Global Council on Extended Intelligence (CXI). Nicolas teaches at the Paris School of International Affairs (Sciences Po), at the IE School of Global and Public Affairs in Madrid, and at the Mohamed bin Rashid School of Government in Dubai. He is also a member of three committees of the IEEE Global Initiative on Ethically Aligned Design of AI and Autonomous Systems, a Senior Visiting Research Fellow with the Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard, and a Fellow with the Center for the Governance of Change at IE Business School in Madrid.

Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms have been around for decades. Yet a lack of access to large amounts of high quality data has historically limited applications of AI in healthcare. However, a more recent increase in the availability of data has created an opportunity to apply AI algorithms to improve patient outcomes globally. In low and middle-income countries, such data could be used to track disease outbreaks, assess drivers of infectious disease transmission and track drug adherence. While there is immense potential for the use of data, it needs to be integrated across different systems, harmonized and curated. Liberating data from proprietary information systems and breaking down the silos between clinicians and the data scientists remain enormous barriers in the utilization of AI to address global health challenges. Dr. Leo Anthony Celi has practiced medicine in three continents, giving him broad perspectives in healthcare delivery. He holds a faculty position at Harvard Medical School as an intensive care specialist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. As clinical research director and principal research scientist at the MIT Laboratory of Computational Physiology (LCP), he brings together clinicians and data scientists to support research using data routinely collected in the intensive care unit (ICU). Leo founded and co-directs Sana, a cross-disciplinary organization based at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT, whose objective is to leverage information technology to improve health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. At its core is an open-source mobile tele-health platform that allows for capture, transmission and archiving of complex medical data, in addition to patient demographic and clinical information. Sana is the inaugural recipient of both the mHealth (Mobile Health) Alliance Award from the United Nations Foundation and the Wireless Innovation Award from the Vodafone Foundation in 2010. The software has since been implemented around the globe including India, Kenya, Lebanon, Haiti, Mongolia, Uganda, Brazil, Ethiopia, Argentina, and South Africa.

Technology & Health Seminar Series 2018-19  “Mapping and Repairing the Brain: Implications for Global Health” with Dr. Ed Boyden Synthetic Neurobiology Group, MIT Brain disorders affect more than a billion people worldwide. Yet cures are few and treatment options inadequate. Traditional ways of examining the brain, such as using an fMRI, have poor resolution and are unable to pinpoint the exact molecular changes causing disease. However, novel technologies are being developed that let scientist peer inside the brain like never before. This includes tools that allow cells and molecules to be imaged with nanoscale precision, as well technologies to enable the activation and silencing of brain activity with light. These technologies, while designed for the brain, also are starting to have impact on the fields of cancer, immunity, and infectious disease, and thus may generally help with the understanding and confrontation of global health challenges. Dr. Boyden is the Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology at MIT, associate professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT’s Media Lab and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and was recently selected to be an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2018). He leads the Synthetic Neurobiology Group, which develops tools for analyzing and repairing complex biological systems such as the brain, and applies them systematically to reveal ground truth principles of biological function as well as to repair these systems.