Tag: health equity

Spending on healthcare per person in the Asia Pacific region is now 80 percent higher than it was in 2009. Citing a recent report commissioned by the AWS Institute, this blog post identifies potential benefits, such as cost savings of USD 21.6 billion if all nine countries studied in the report transition their hospital IT to the cloud.

In 2021, Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched the AWS Health Equity Initiative as a three-year, $40 million commitment to help solve gaps in health equity. Today, AWS is announcing an additional $20 million in funding for the program, bringing the company’s total commitment to $60 million in cloud credits and technical expertise. Read this post to learn more.

AWS announced the 2023 cohort of the Halcyon Climate Resilience in Latin America and the Caribbean Fellowship. AWS is sponsoring this fellowship with Halcyon, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit supporting impact-driven startups, to accelerate solutions that address the compounding effects of climate change. The focus of this fellowship is to help 10 innovative startups address the intersection of climate change and social determinants of health to provide more equitable health and life outcomes.

Healthcare organizations worldwide are embracing the concept of connective devices using the internet of medical things (IoMT). Logiksavvy Innovations (LSI) is a healthcare technology (HealthTech) startup that focuses on research and development (R&D) of innovative technologies that impact healthcare, self-care, and the community. LSI set out to develop an IoMT solution with the capability to detect and prevent critical health events. Working with AWS through the Health Equity Initiative, LSI collaborated with AWS ProServe to develop a viable proof-of-concept with the AWS Cloud.

In this guest post, Ajay K. Gupta, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of HSR.health, explains how healthcare technology (HealthTech) nonprofit HSR.health uses geospatial artificial intelligence and AWS to develop solutions that support improvements in healthcare and health equity around the world.

Climate change is a significant factor in many health-related issues, from the increase of pest-related illness, to food scarcity, access to clean air and water, and beyond. Recognizing the power the cloud has to amplify technologies that mitigate many of these issues, AWS is sponsoring a new fellowship with Halcyon, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit supporting impact-driven startups. Designed for entrepreneurs seeking to build climate resilience across Latin America and the Caribbean, the Halcyon Climate Resilience Intensive Fellowship aims to combat the compounding effects of climate change on poverty, food insecurity, health disparities, and displacement.

Today, AWS announced the 11 participants chosen for the AWS Healthcare Accelerator Australia/New Zealand for Aged Care and Digital Health. The cohort is developing a range of solutions, using the power of the cloud, to improve equitable access to health, social, and aged care services; support aged care and health service providers to deliver higher quality care; and promote new and productive ways of delivering services.

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the number one cause of death for student athletes and the leading cause of death on school campuses. The nonprofit Who We Play For (WWPF) advocates for SCA prevention through advocacy, automated external defibrillator (AED) placement, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training, and heart screenings, which include low-cost electrocardiogram (ECG) screenings from physicians that are experts in pediatric ECG interpretation. To scale their efforts, WWPF collaborated with AWS to build a ML solution to help extend the chance to get screened for SCA to every young person, potentially saving many lives each year.

AWS announced the 10 finalists for the 2022 AWS Healthcare Accelerator focused on improving health equity. This year’s cohort brought forward innovative ideas that will improve access to care, provide actionable health equity data, expand access to medical transport, and help people without a home reach housing and health goals. Over the course of the four-week Accelerator program, these 10 startups will receive technical and business mentorship from AWS and KidsX experts, up to $25,000 in AWS Computing Credits, and collaboration opportunities with AWS healthcare customers, industry leaders, and members of AWS Partner Network (APN) looking for healthcare solutions.

eVisit’s role as a participant in the AWS Health Equity Initiative provided me with the opportunity to serve as a panelist at this year’s AWS Summit Washington, DC in May. I presented alongside other AWS health equity program partners to outline our collective efforts to increase access to healthcare services in underserved communities, reduce disparities by addressing social determinants of health (SDoH), and leverage data to promote equitable systems of care.