Global Health: Scaling Health Technology Innovations in Low Resource Settings

Recent advances in health technologies - incorporating innovations like robotics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and smart sensors - have raised expectations of a dramatic impact on health outcomes across the world. However, bringing innovative technologies to low resource settings has proven challenging, limiting their impact. Ironically, the current COVID-19 pandemic has become Exhibit 1 in the challenges the global health community faces in scaling innovative interventions. This course explores critical questions regarding the implementation and impact of technological innovations in low-resource settings. The course will feature thought leaders from the health technology community, who will explore examples of technologies that have been successful in low resource communities, as well as those that have failed. A subset of these examples will be drawn from the current pandemic. Students will think critically to consider conditions under which technologies reach scale and have positive impact in the global health field. Students will also have an opportunity to work on real-world projects, each of which will focus on the potential opportunity for a health technology in a low-resource setting and consider approaches to ensure its impact at scale. This course will be taught by Dr. Anurag Mairal, Adjunct Professor of Medicine and the Director, Global Outreach Programs at Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign, and Dr. Michele Barry, Senior Associate Dean for Global Health and Director of the Center for Innovation in Global Health. This course is open to undergraduate students, graduate students, and medical students. Students can take the course for two or three units. Students enrolling in the course for a third unit will work on the group project described above. Students enrolled in the class for three units will also have additional assignments, including weekly discussion posts. Students must submit an application and be selected to receive an enrollment code. Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center The application form can be found at the following link: https://forms.gle/K3nyjEcWuJLYTPo18. Questions can be directed to Course Manager, Yosefa Gilon, ygilon [at] stanford.edu (ygilon[at]stanford[dot]edu)