PHA-Exch> Nonprofit InSTEDD Takes New Approach to Improving Global Health, Humanitarian Efforts, and Disaster Relief

Mon Mar 30 01:11:19 PDT 2009

OH NO, ONE MORE TO SELL US TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS?
  Claudio

From: Vern Weitzel vern.weitzel at gmail.com

Nonprofit InSTEDD Takes New Approach to Improving Global Health,
Humanitarian
Efforts, and Disaster Relief

New nonprofit to deliver innovative technologies and services to enhance
collaboration; initial backing from Google.org, Rockefeller Foundation and
private donors.

PALO ALTO, Calif. – January 17, 2008 – InSTEDD (Innovative Support to
Emergencies, Diseases and Disasters), a nonprofit organization focused on
improving early detection, preparedness, and response capabilities for
global
health threats and humanitarian crises, was launched today. InSTEDD has
received
initial financial backing from Google.org, the Rockefeller Foundation and
private donors.

InSTEDD (http://instedd.org) will work with the community of relief and
response
organizations, governments, academia and top scientists around the world to
address gaps in information flow with software and other technology-based
tools
and services. Acting as an innovation laboratory, InSTEDD aims to support
the
humanitarian community in preparing for and responding to global public
health
emergencies, working together towards a safer world.

Google.org, the newly launched philanthropic arm of Google, created InSTEDD
as
one of its first projects within its Predict and Prevent Initiative,
announced
today, which has as its aim to identify “hotspots” of emerging threats and
to
enable a rapid response.  “Our hope is that InSTEDD can serve as a broker
for
bringing multiple technology companies, including Google, together to
contribute
to the greatest needs in responding to global threats in an open,
transparent
and non-competitive space”, said Dr. Mark Smolinski, Director of the Predict
and
Prevent Initiative at Google.org.   “In the case of infectious diseases, for
example, the time has come to change our usual thinking from responding to
threats only after they happen, to thinking about what we can do to prevent
epidemics from occurring in the first place.”

InSTEDD’s first major international initiative is the Mekong Collaboration
Program in Southeast Asia. InSTEDD staff, supported by a grant from the
Rockefeller Foundation, will be working with more than 20 partners to
enhance
information flow, collaboration, and data visualization tools for emerging
infectious disease preparedness. The work crosses governmental,
geographical,
and organizational boundaries in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar,
and
Yunnan Province in southern China.

“The efforts of humanitarian aid organizations around the world are often
hobbled by technical and cross-cultural limitations,” said Dr. Eric
Rasmussen,
CEO of InSTEDD. “InSTEDD’s objective is to overcome these limitations with
durable, scalable and affordable options that can be shared rapidly in even
the
worst environments.”

"We salute the launch of InSTEDD, which has great potential for advancing
the
groundbreaking work of the Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance Network," said
Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, which funds the
Network.
"We're delighted to join with Google.org in this crucial effort as we
continue
to work with a range of outstanding partners to develop global health
initiatives that benefit poor and vulnerable people around the world."

Another significant InSTEDD project is spearheading the Global Crisis
Management
(GCM) project with UNICEF, which is designed to improve UNICEF’s ability to
assess and display worldwide crisis information within its Emergency
Operations
Centers in New York City and Geneva.

In its role as innovation laboratory, InSTEDD will investigate the
challenges
faced by humanitarian and public health organizations and develop technology
solutions customized for their needs. InSTEDD’s software engineers will
initially look for existing technology, practices and methods and examine
ways
they can be applied, adapted or transformed to address these challenges. If
needed, InSTEDD’s staff will develop new technology to address a problem
when no
other acceptable option can be found. InSTEDD’s “Field Lab” has already
built
several tools and services that integrate technologies from Microsoft,
Google,
Facebook, and Twitter.

InSTEDD recognizes that the extreme environment of the humanitarian or
public
health worker demands technical designs that are stronger, faster, cheaper
and
more interoperable and mobile than many existing products and services
currently
available. InSTEDD’s knowledge and new technologies will be shared openly
with
the humanitarian community and modified as needed to address future
challenges.

Background

InSTEDD was originally conceived as the result of a 2006 TED Conference
Prize
awarded to epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant, who presently is Executive
Director of Google.org and a member of the Board of Directors of InSTEDD.

Dr. Brilliant said, “History has shown that when we can identify, understand
and
address public health threats and disasters early, our ability to save lives
is
radically improved. My dream for InSTEDD is to fulfill the much-needed role
of
an independent agent bringing the technological, medical and organizational
skills necessary to help the humanitarian aid community accomplish this, and
ultimately help them to make the world a safer place.”

In May 2007, InSTEDD was incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit. In October
2007,
Eric Rasmussen, MD, MDM, FACP, became its CEO.  Dr. Rasmussen is a former US
Navy Commander with extensive experience in humanitarian efforts. He also is
the
chief architect of the “Strong Angel” international disaster response
demonstrations.

The name InSTEDD began as a pun on “TED” (the TED conference) and “EDD”
(Early
Disease Detection). But the pun on the word “instead” led it to being
adopted as
the company’s name. InSTEDD is about new and better approaches—instead of
doing
things the way they’re done today.

About InSTEDD

InSTEDD (“Innovative Support to Emergencies, Diseases and Disaster”) is an
independent, international 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation, chartered to
develop
improved information capabilities for global health security and disaster
response.  InSTEDD collaborates with partners dedicated to the health and
safety
of the global public.  For additional information about InSTEDD, please
visit
the organization’s website at http://InSTEDD.org.