Over the last few months, I have been working on a proposal for InSTEDD* (“Innovative Support To Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters”), an independent non-profit spin-off of Google.org that works on technologies to improve global health and humanitarian action. Most of its efforts are focused on developing software, adapting hardware and testing out systems for better disease surveillance, data collection, connectivity and field communications.

My project – the Humanitarian Technology Review (working title) – is a bit different: a weekly online newsletter / website journal that covers technology for global heath and humanitarian action.

The need for concrete aid – more anti-malarial bed nets, more vaccines and drugs, clean water, food, shelter, digital networks, money – is both pressing and obvious. But to say, "We need to invest in more information and better ways to connect across disciplines!" addresses a somewhat less tangible, though no less urgent, need. This truly is “innovative support,” designed to link those with needs to those with ideas, products and funding. It is a medium to make it easier to discover and implement much-needed better answers.  (see related post: Technology for the Greater Good: HTR & the Roots of an Idea)

Ironically, although specialization has led to a greater aggregate knowledge, growing gaps between fields have led to missed opportunities and missed clues – sometimes with tragic consequences.

Months before the CDC reported cases of paralysis in West Nile patients, veterinarians documented cases in large mammals. Humans, too, are large mammals, but doctors don't have time to read vet journals and vice-versa. There are similar examples in every field.

HTR is about mixing it up, bridging “silos” of expertise and transcending boundaries (geographic, political, professional). No one single e-newsletter will cover every topic. The point specifically is not to overload readers, but to give them an easy way to learn about discoveries and developments in other fields, some of which might be relevant to their work.

Some of the most promising ideas over the last few years are the result of inspired combinations:

1. •lightweight fabric + satellite technology = a cheaper portable satellite dish
   

2. •software + cell phones = real-time surveillance for bird flu
   

3. •GIS + interactive mapping = real time tracking of fires and floods
   

4. •solar panels + refrigerator = reliable field transport for vaccines
   

5. •filter + straw = a mobile water purification device
   

6. •genetic sampling  +  fast data analysis = identifying a pathogen in hours
   

Now imagine:

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DISEASE & DISASTER

Disease and disaster – HTR’s twin foci – are typically viewed as separate issues, handled by different agencies and specialists. Yet there is no humanitarian crisis without a health component, or a serious outbreak of disease without a humanitarian dimension.

Likewise, most human diseases are zoonotic, meaning they also affect animals. Animal health and human health are two sides to the same coin. (see ICEID post re “One Medicine / One Health”)

Even an outbreak of a disease in insects can have vast humanitarian implications. Over just the last couple of years, Colony Collapse Disorder has wiped about a third of the honeybee hives used to pollinate food crops in the U.S. A catastrophe for bees means reduced yields, higher food prices, less food aid and more hungry people.

In an ever-flattening world, regional disasters can quickly go global, while global events can have devastating local consequences.

These intersecting crises are becoming more frequent, dangerous and severe. According to a recent Oxfam report, there has been a four-fold increase in the annual number of natural disasters over the last 20 years. At the same time, increased trade and travel, high-volume livestock and poultry operations, wars, a shifting climate, drug-resistant pathogens and a burgeoning human population have led to a significant increase in emerging diseases and outbreaks.

HTR is designed to dovetail with and extend the reach of other publications covering the humanitarian and health beats, to make the links they cannot, and create a network of networks.

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My continuing discussions with epidemiologists, doctors, veterinarians, technologists, aid workers, NGO administrators, first-responders, lab researchers and editors have helped both shape HTR and affirmed the need for it.

HTR defines its technology beat broadly: rapid diagnostics, transportation logistics, social networking, sanitation systems, biotech, lighting, energy, water purification, IT in all its forms – anything and everything that can make a difference.

The format is simple: the heart and soul is a well-designed weekly e-newsletter with a mix of original content and aggregated content from both general and technical publications.

Original content includes feature-length articles, interviews and blogs, as well as a “developments to watch” section of short items highlighting advances in research, promising products and tools, and relevant events (for example, news on droughts, floods, outbreaks, etc.).

HTR’s mission is not only to highlight what works, but equally important, what doesn’t and explain why. 

It also goes beyond the gear to look at the back-stories and underlying issues driving the need for these technologies.

The Advisory Board

Key to the concept is an active, sleeves-rolled-up advisory board whose members will be selected for expertise in various fields (e.g., international public health, work in refugee camps, bioinformatics, animal health, supply chain logistics, communications technologies, media, mental health, virology, sanitation technologies, etc.). Not all fields will be represented on any one board, which will have between 10 and 12 members. Each board will serve 13 months: 1 year plus a 1-month overlap to help the next “class” transition.

Since HTR will be an international publication, WHO (World Health Organization), along with its animal health counterpart, OIE (Office of International Epizootics), and UNHCR (the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) would each be offered representation on the board, although individual representatives will be asked to change annually.

In addition, one spot will be reserved for someone either early in his or her career who shows promise but is not well known, or someone who has earned the respect of colleagues in the field, but likewise is not well known (e.g., a nurse working on the front lines).

The goal actually goes beyond advice. At every level, HTR needs to “walk the talk” and the hope is to help foster personal bonds across disciplines that perhaps might lead to collaborations beyond HTR.

In addition to their advisory work, board members will be invited to write an article about their fields for a guest column, with a focus on improvement and innovation.

The Humanitarian Technology Review is an idea-in-progress. Please send any thoughts, ideas or questions to: htr@instedd.org or jaginsburg@gmail.com.

* “Innovative Support To Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters” is a retrofit for an acronym introduced in a speech at a TED conference by epidemiologist-turned-Google.org director Larry Brilliant. It was originally a double pun on TED and EDD – Early Disease Detection.

by Janet A. Ginsburg

    a cheap portable satellite dish

1. + cell phones and computers (powered by micro fuel cells)
   

2. +  interactive mapping
   

3. + a solar refrigerator
   

4. + plus reliably clean drinking water
   

    + rapid diagnostic tests

    + a digital camera  (Gigapan)

    + transportation (of any kind, including hooved)  

    = one superior field lab

website outline

overview pdf

newsletter outline