Reaching Global Health Goals with Mobile Technology

Speaker Profiles

Reaching Global Health Goals with Mobile Technology

October 28, 2009

Elizabeth Ashbourne, Director, Global Health Information Forums for Health Metrics Network, WHO and World Bank

Elizabeth (EJ) Ashbourne, , is the Director of Global Health Information Forums for the Health Metrics Network, a partnership with WHO and the World Bank. Among many projects, she is leading the work to build and implement a common metric for donor agencies, development partners and countries to measure their investment in health information. Prior to this, she managed the work of the international pillar in the World Bank’s Results Secretariate. She spent the last seven years working closely on issues specific to engaging the private sector in the fight against HIV/AIDS. As the focal point for private sector partnerships with the World Bank’s Africa Region, HIV/AIDS programs, her role was to develop and implement the mechanisms through which the private sector can access financial and technical resources from the Multicountry HIV/AIDS Program, the Bank’s $1.5billion investment in HIV/AIDS. She has worked in some 24 countries in Africa, and provided technical assistance in another 8. In addition, EJ facilitates global corporate relationships with the Bank with HIV/AIDS programs throughout Africa and the rest of the world.

Before coming to the Bank, EJ spent three and a half years in Eastern Europe managing USAID training programs as Country Director in Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, and Deputy Director and Program Manager of a Management Training Institute in Bratislava, Slovakia.

EJ Ashbourne’s other experience includes designing programs to encourage and facilitate joint ventures between developing country entrepreneurs and SMEs in the US; serving as the senior coordinator for international internship programs at the American University; adjunct professor, career planning and tracking, and human resources change management at Arthur D. Little’s Executive Management Program; and worked for the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafiq Hariri. She also spent two years in NYC working with the textile designer, Jack Lenor Larson.

EJ holds an MA in International Education, with an emphasis on Organizational Management from American University, in Washington DC, and a BSc in Communications and History from Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY.

David Aylward, Executive Director, MHealth Alliance

David Aylward is the first Executive Director of the mHealth Alliance -- a partnership recently formed by the UN Foundation, The Vodafone Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation to support and advance mobile health (“mHealth”) initiatives in the developing world. The Alliance will generate public and private collaboration in support of mHealth innovation and projects that address global health needs.

Aylward has more than 35 years of experience in public policy, information technology, and communications. Prior to joining the Foundation, he was Director of COMCARE Emergency Response Alliance, which he founded in 1998. As Chief Strategist for COMCARE, Aylward helped develop a new vision and interoperable architecture for domestic emergency response of all kinds, including: medical, based on modern information technology, broadband, and wireless.

Aylward began his communications career as Legislative Director to U.S. Representative Timothy E. Wirth (D-Colorado). After directing the staff of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee during the advent of competition in telecommunications, the breakup of AT&T, and the emergence of the cable television industry as a major force, he established National Strategies, a successful business and public policy consulting firm that is in its 25th year.

He has managed and been an owner of radio and satellite companies, and represented a wide range of communications, finance and other clients, most recently focusing on healthcare response, information technology, and assisting innovative start-up companies, in addition to his emergency response advocacy.

Aylward received a BA from Dartmouth College and a JD from The George Washington University Law School.

Ekkehard Betsch, Senior Health Specialist, World Bank

Born in Esslingen, Germany, Ekkehard Betsch was awarded a diploma in Nutrition from the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim in 1973. He left university after having served a number of years as a teaching assistant in Biotechnology, and joined F. Hoffmann-La Roche in Basel, Switzerland.

After a brief period in a technical support function he held a range of management positions in the Vitamins and Fine Chemicals Division in Switzerland, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. In 1991, he moved to the Pharmaceuticals Division where he further broadened his experience with general management assignments in Saudi Arabia and in Dubai, where he was responsible for the Roche Middle East organization. He initiated a number of local manufacturing partnerships, in particular in Iran and Egypt, which helped to broaden access to innovative medicines for patients suffering from hepatitis, cancer and renal disease.

In 2009 he joined the World Bank as IFPMA Fellow in the position of Senior Health Specialist, where he supports the pharmaceutical team in the implementation and evaluation of health sector projects containing pharmaceutical components.

Deepak Bhatia, Practice Leader eGovernment Applications, Global ICT Department, The World Bank

Mr. Deepak Bhatia is the Practice Leader for E-government applications in the Global ICT Department and manages the Informatics components of Bank loans in several countries. Having joined the World Bank in 1984, Deepak brings 25 years of knowledge and experience in providing support to Bank's operations involving IT components. Deepak's knowledge of the intricacy of IT and understanding of the complexity of strategy development for process and IT integration is guiding IAS in providing tactical, operational, and facilitation services to Bank's operational teams in identification, assessment, and re-engineering of IT components in operational projects. His experience prior to GICT include: manager for the e-government practice, manager for the informatics advisory service, manager for the Operations and Resource Management systems for systems renewal; manager for the Information and Document Management team in ISG; and project manager for the sector-theme reclassification project. Deepak has two Masters degrees in Computer Applications (M. Eng) and Business Administration (M.B.A).

Alison Bloch, Advisor, mHealth Alliance and GSM Association

Alison is an mHealth Advisor to the mHealth Alliance and the GSM Association as well as related organizations working in the mobile solutions for development space. She has deep experience helping complex public and private health organizations with issues related to strategic direction, operational management, and the design and application of technological solutions to deliver upon goals and objectives for both non-profit and for-profit entities.

This experience has included advising the global health chair of the Clinton Global Initiative on ways to harness technology for sustainable international health interventions, consulting to McKesson Corporation on strategic business opportunities to use technological solutions to improve the delivery of critical health care business processes in hospitals and health institutions, managing the development and execution of a public-private partnership for a telemedicine initiative in Egypt, and working with a foundation in Haiti to establish a strategy to use culturally appropriate technology solutions to improve access to healthcare services.

Previously, Alison has worked in clinical research in hematology and oncology while at Cornell Medical College/New York Presbyterian Hospital and as a strategy consultant for Katzenbach Partners where she focused on business strategy and technology process redesign for the pharmaceutical and related health industries. Alison holds a BA in Economics from Barnard College, Columbia University and earned an MBA and a Masters in Public Health with a concentration in technology from the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and School of Public Health respectively. While at Berkeley, Alison received a fellowship through the Blum Center for Developing Economies to develop healthcare-based information and communication technology initiatives in East Africa.

Karl Brown, Associate Director of Applied Technology

Karl Brown joined the Rockefeller Foundation in 2006. As Associate Director of Applied Technology, Brown is focused on the application of information technology to the programmatic work of the foundation. He is working on exploring and nurturing imaginative uses of technology by Rockefeller grantees, and improving collaboration and knowledge management within the Foundation.

Prior to joining the Rockefeller Foundation, Brown worked as the Chief Technical Officer of GNVC, an NGO that fostered entrepreneurship in Ghana. Previously, Brown was a technical team lead with Trilogy, where he developed and deployed enterprise systems and consumer-facing websites for Fortune 500 companies such as Ford and Nissan.

Brown received a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Stanford University and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.

Philippe Dongier, Sector Manager, CITPO, GICT, World Bank

Philippe Dongier is Sector Manager for ICT in the Global ICT Department. Philippe joined the World Bank Group in 1998 and has worked in the infrastructure and sustainable development sectors, in the anchors and in Asia, Africa and Latin America. He was manager for Afghanistan reconstruction (2001-2004), and recently authored a World Bank report entitled ‘Infrastructure: Lessons from the Last Two Decades of World Bank Engagement’.

Prior to joining the Bank, Philippe was with McKinsey & Company (1993-1998), advising companies and governments on issues of strategy and organizational restructuring. From 1986 to 1992, he worked in Nepal and Vietnam on decentralized and community-based infrastructure. Philippe holds an MBA from INSEAD and a BA in economics from McGill University.

Armin Fidler, Lead Advisor for Health Policy and Strategy, World Bank

An Austrian national, Dr. Armin Fidler joined the World Bank in 1993 and started to work in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Region. In 2000 he became the Manager for Health, Nutrition, Population for the Europe and Central Asia Region. In 2008 Dr. Fidler was appointed Lead Advisor for Health Policy and Strategy in the Bank’s Human Development Network at the global level.

Dr. Fidler holds a Doctor of Medicine Degree (MD) from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Bernhard Nocht Institute, Hamburg, Germany and Master of Public Health (MPH) and Master of Science (MSc.) degrees in Health Policy and Management, both from Harvard University’s School of Public Health. He also earned certificates in Management from the Harvard Business School and in Public Finance and Welfare Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Prior to joining the World Bank, Dr. Fidler served as Sub-Regional Advisor for the World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), based in Mexico and Central America after serving in the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA.

He was an advisor to the Austrian Minister of Health, Youth and Family and serves on the international advisory council for the Governor of the State of Vorarlberg, Austria. He serves on the Executive Committee and Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI), and represents the Bank at the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Rachel Glennerster, Executive Director, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)

Rachel Glennerster is Executive Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a center in the economics department at MIT devoted to fighting poverty by ensuring that poverty policy is based on scientific evidence. Her research includes randomized evaluations of health and education in India, girls’ empowerment in Bangladesh, and community driven development in Sierra Leone. She oversees J-PAL’s work to translate research findings into policy action and helped establish Deworm the World of which she is a board member. She sits on the UK government’s Department for International Development’s Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact.

Before joining J-PAL, Rachel Glennerster worked on debt relief and the reform of the international monetary system at the International Monetary Fund, and financial regulation at the Harvard Institute for International Development and the UK Treasury. In the mid 1990s she was part of the UK delegation to the IMF and World Bank. She has a PhD in economics from Birkbeck College, University of London, and is coauthor of “Strong Medicine: Creating Incentives for Pharmaceutical Research on Neglected Diseases.”

Yusuf Ajack Ibrahim, Training Manager, DataDyne.org

Yusuf is currently the DataDyne.org Training Manager in Nairobi, Kenya and as a secondee from the Ministry of Public Health. Yusuf has the tricky job of both advising users about EpiSurveyor, but also helping the Nairobi based development team understand the needs of those users. It is this critical link that helps make EpiSurveyor so simple and useful for public health workers all over the world. Yusuf is also the Data Manager in the Division of Disease Surveillance and Response at the Ministry of Public Health & Sanitation in Kenya. Yusuf has also worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control on the Stop the Transmission of Polio (STOP) Team.

Yusuf has received a Higher National Diploma in Epidemiology. He has worked in public health in Kenya for 13 years. He also has the distinction of being one of the original EpiSurveyor beta testers.

Eva Jarawan, Sector Manager, Health, Nutrition and Population, World Bank

Eva Jarawan is Sector Manager for Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) covering Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to July 1, 2009, she was Sector Manager for Human Development for 3 years, covering HNP, Education and Social Protection for 16 West African countries. She has 18 years of Bank experience covering a range of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as the Middle East and North Africa. She has worked in the areas of health policy, health system development, public health and disease control, nutrition, population and reproductive health, and community-based approaches to development. As a manager, she has overseen tasks in education and Social Protection, in addition to HNP.

She holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a focus on Health Policy and Management and an MBA from Georgia State University, a Master of Public Health and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from the American University of Beirut.

Before joining the Bank, she was on the Faculty of Health Sciences at the American University of Beirut and a research fellow as well as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.

Romdoul Kim, Director of Government Affairs, InSTEDD’s Innovation Lab, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Prior to joining InSTEDD, Romdoul worked in Cambodia as part of the senior management team for a Cambodian anti-human trafficking NGO and has previously worked for other international NGOs. In those positions she has been responsible for Programmatic Management and for Operations, including budget, administration, human resources, logistics, and other program-related matters, ensuring adherence to all donor requirements. In the US she was a contract administration manager for a corporation that provided the US federal government with technical support in monitoring and evaluation on the Department of Housing and Urban Development public housing program for the poor.

Now serving as InSTEDD’s Director of Government Affairs for the Mekong Region, Romdoul assists government partners in discovering ways to improve their work flow through the innovative use of free and open-source technology. She also cultivates potential partners by introducing methods by which technology can have an impact in reducing human suffering within their domain. Her cross-sector work allows the bridging of agencies with collaborative tools, facilitating new communication pathways and improving both their efficiency and their effectiveness.

Romdoul Kim received a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Government at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and holds a Master of Public Administration from the National University of Singapore. Cambodian by birth, language, and culture, she was raised in the Cambodian-American community in southern California and calls San Diego, California home.

Erica Kochi, UNICEF

Erica is co-lead of the UNICEF Innovations Team, a group tasked with identifying and developing technology to improve UNICEF's work in the field. Working with partners in academia, development, and the private sector, the team's mandate includes connecting the wired and unwired worlds, streamlining distribution and reporting, and improving the efficiency and reach of messages.
To increase the impact and scale of this work, the Innovation Team convenes partners in academia, the private and development sectors. Most recently, Erica’s team has been responsible for the development of RapidSMS - a system that uses basic mobile phones and SMS (text) messages to collect information from field workers and improve the speed and quality of data collection.
Erica is committed to the belief that diverse perspectives inform innovation, and that balancing conventional practices with educated risks allows established organizations to refresh their mission, while never losing sight of key goals.
Erica has additionally worked with the Commission for Macroeconomics and Health, a joint collaboration between the World Bank and the World Health Organization, and developed and executed UNICEF global communication strategies for immunization, child survival & avian influenza and pandemic preparedness. Prior to joining UNICEF in 2002, Erica studied Economics and Japanese at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London and the University of Kyoto.