{"id":17991,"date":"2014-11-12T01:11:17","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T01:11:17","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-10-15T01:10:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T01:10:50","slug":"taking-aim-at-the-big-problems-what-technology-can-do-for-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=17991","title":{"rendered":"Taking Aim At The Big Problems-What Technology Can Do For Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sue Desmond-Hellmann runs the $40 billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is probably best known for investing in the development of drugs and vaccines to fight widespread diseases such as AIDS and malaria. Sam Altman is the president of Y Combinator, one of the best-known technology incubators in Silicon Valley.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

Together, they sat down with Dennis Berman, The Wall Street Journal\u2019s business editor, to discuss how technology is being used to solve the world\u2019s problems. Here are edited excerpts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

World\u2019s Biggest Thermos<\/p>\n

MR. BERMAN: I think you guys represent, in some ways, distinct ways of solving problems around the world. <\/p>\n

Sue , you might say that you can combine a lot of what Sam has to offer into big organizations. But can big bureaucracies, big organizations do the work needed to respond to something like Ebola? <\/p>\n

MS. DESMOND-HELLMANN: What we have in common is we\u2019re both problem solvers and investors. And one of the great things about the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is we can, in a very precise way, sometimes with a small group of people, invest in solving problems.<\/p>\n

But inevitably we need to work with governments or what you\u2019re calling bureaucracies. When you\u2019re working on the world\u2019s biggest problems, when you\u2019re working in sub-Saharan Africa at scale, you\u2019ve got to go to the local ministry of health. You\u2019ve got to understand that NGOs and governments and universities are part of that. And so it won\u2019t scale if we won\u2019t interact with bureaucracies. So we do.<\/p>\n

MR. BERMAN: Give us one or two things that get you most excited, whether it be companies or initiatives happening at the Gates Foundation. <\/p>\n

MS. DESMOND-HELLMANN: One of the things that I saw when I was out in Ethiopia over the summer is called the P6, the world\u2019s biggest thermos. A front-line health worker in Ethiopia can put vaccines that need to be stored cold in it, and it allows her to get those vaccines to the villages where the children are, saving literally hundreds of thousands of lives.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So sometimes, the big gee-whiz high-tech things allow us to do things to get safe and effective vaccines to save kids\u2019 lives. And that kind of technology allows us to markedly reduce under-5 mortality. <\/strong><\/p>\n

SOURCE:<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/online.wsj.com\/articles\/what-technology-can-do-for-health-1414964119<\/p>\n

Imagine-John Lennon<\/strong>
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