TIME: Big Data Can Improve the Health of the World’s Most Vulnerable: Mothers and Children
Naveen A. Rao, medical doctor and senior vice president of the Health Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation

“…Unfortunately, the best minds in technology and data science tend not to focus on empowering community health workers with data analytic tools. Private sector innovation is not reaching the developing world, especially community health workers, because there is limited commercial opportunity. This leads to lack of investment, data infrastructure, information quality, and talent. To help remedy that, The Rockefeller Foundation — for which I work as Senior Vice President of Health — announced in September 2019 a $100 million initiative to bring data science innovations to community health workers around the world, starting in 10 countries, with the goal of saving at least 6 million lives over the next decade. Although change will not happen overnight, I am optimistic we can achieve a shift in mindset across governments and the private sector that says technology should be for the benefit of everyone…” (10/24).