AWS earmarks $40 mn for health equity organisations

Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Tuesday said it has launched a global programme to support organisations working to enhance health outcomes for underserved or underrepresented communities.

The cloud computing major will provide $40 million, in AWS credits and technical expertise, over three years to help organisations develop solutions to improve health outcomes, as per a statement.

This programme is open to organisations around the world that want to leverage AWS in any of the three areas – increasing access to health services for undeserved communities; addressing social determinants of health; and leveraging data to promote more equitable and inclusive systems of care.

The deadline for applications is November 15.

Under the first area, projects that focus on underserved populations around the world will be eligible for the programme. This could include the development of tools such as telehealth and telemedicine to reach remote and marginalised communities, remote patient monitoring, increasing the availability and impact of health workers, and more.

Examples under the second area include safe housing, transportation, education, access to nutritious foods, clean air and water and more.

Under the third category, eligible projects include creating or consolidating datasets to increase representation in health systems, linking to SDoH data to create more robust and informative datasets, or cleaning existing datasets to improve accuracy about race, ethnicity, gender, disability or other data points that will help to advance health equity for all.

“Applying modern technology to health systems is not a silver bullet to ending health inequity, but it can speed health research and innovation, level the playing field for accessing care, help deliver trusted information to people when and where they need it, streamline supply chains, and more,” the statement added

Through its Diagnostic Development Initiative (DDI) in early 2020, AWS committed $20 million in computing credits and expertise to support customers using AWS to drive diagnostic innovations. So far, AWS said it has supported 87 organisations in 17 countries ranging from nonprofits and research institutions to startups and large businesses.