On Thursday, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced plans to funnel an additional $20 million into its health equity initiativebringing the company’s total investment in the program to $60 million.
AWS launched the program in 2021, originally committing $40 million to enable and accelerate the pace of health equity-focused research and innovation.
“This program emerged out of the pandemic when health equity, and the disparities that people globally were experiencing, was really highlighted. There is a lack of access to care and a lack of access to resources that people need to achieve their full health,” said Danielle Morris, AWS’ health equity lead, in an interview this week.
AWS has already distributed more than $30 million of the program’s funds across 28 countries, as well as partnered with nearly 230 organizations across the globe.
Morris highlighted AWS’ partnership with Touch Foundationan organization based in Tanzania and New York. Supported by AWS, Touch Foundation launched a program to improve maternal and child health in sub-Saharan Africa.
Women in sub-Saharan Africa often lack access to prenatal and postpartum care, Morris pointed out. To address this problem, Touch Foundation stood up a call center on AWS’ cloud and tapped into local taxi networks so they could provide free transportation to health facilities.
“We enabled Touch Foundation to scale their support across Tanzania and Lesotho. In fact, last year, the Ministry of Health of Tanzania actually adopted AWS technologies through Touch Foundation to make that a part of their standard of care,” Morris declared.
As AWS continues to advance the mission of its health equity initiative, the company is focusing on three main priorities, she added. The first is increasing access to quality, culturally responsive health services.
With this particular area of focus, AWS is seeking to partner with organizations that connect people to the care they need, similarly to Touch Foundation, Morris explained. Cancer care company Huron AI is another example of a partner organization working to improve access to quality care in Africa, she noted.
“Hurone AI saw a disparity in cancer care and treatment across Africa, so they’re working with the Ministry of Health in Rwanda to do remote patient monitoring. That way, patients can report their health outcomes or symptoms that they may be experiencing without having to traverse the country to get to one of the few oncologists,” Morris said.
AWS’ second priority is promoting resilient communities through better access to responsive social and community support. By effectively leveraging technology, organizations can provide communities with the health information and social resources they need to improve their health and wellbeing, Morris remarked.
She cited RefAid as a good example of an AWS partner that is advancing this work. The company is using AWS technology to connect displaced people around the world with resources from government entities and international NGOs, such as housing, medication and education, Morris explained.
As for AWS’ last priority, the company is renewing its focus on mitigating the impact of climate change on the global population’s health and quality of life.
“Climate change has a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of communities around the world, particularly those who are underserved. We selected this focus because we believe that technology can really help to identify natural disasters and areas where certain populations are being negatively impacted — such as by increased heat, for example,” Morris stated.
Halcyon is one of AWS’ partners in this arena. Last year, AWS sponsored Halcyon as it launched an accelerator program to help startups across Latin America and the Caribbean address the harmful effects of climate change. One example of a technology being developed within that accelerator is a coating that can be applied to food to preserve it longer during natural disasters, Morris noted.
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