Reuse Your Technology for Social Good
Technology is driving radical change all over the world. If tech companies go beyond business as usual by exploring alternative use cases, we can make an impact to solve global challenges. The question is: Do we have an ethical obligation to share intellectual property for social good?
Today, technology is implemented in practically every aspect of our lives. Companies all over the globe are sitting on life-changing technologies to facilitate better communication, optimised healthcare, new business models, and much more. These technologies are developed for targeted users and customers; however, if your service is digital, there is a good chance it has potential beyond your intended purpose. With digital services, the distance to alteration and implementation is shorter compared to, for example, donating a pharmaceutical treatment that must be shipped and distributed. Furthermore, developing a new pharmaceutical treatment can easily take 12–15 years.
Digital technologies can be implemented quickly, as the criteria for uptake simply requires the user to have a smartphone. In sub-saharan Africa, where smartphone ownership is at its lowest point in the world, there is still an ownership of 33%.
These technologies can also help achieve almost instantaneous global reach, potentially facilitating the capacity building and infrastructure support that many emerging economies are in need of.
This is where intellectual property for purpose comes into the picture. If we as tech companies broaden our thinking beyond our roadmap, we might be able to reach additional users and implement our technology for alternative use cases — and to innovate for social good. We can make a difference beyond simply donating grants for charity by reusing and donating IP for purpose.
The question is: Do we have an ethical obligation to share our technology and know-how with people who can benefit from it?
For me and my colleagues at LEO Innovation Lab, the answer is yes.
Technology can improve access to healthcare
We are moving closer to a global healthcare crisis as the World Health Organisation predicts a global shortage of 13 million healthcare workers by 2035. There simply aren’t enough doctors to treat us all — especially in remote areas.
Digital platforms can address this issue by making clinical support available through a smartphone. One of our goals at LEO Innovation Lab is to help realise this potential to enable better access to healthcare, regardless of a person’s location and social background.
We are building digital platforms to increase the capabilities of doctors globally in developed economies where we have a network and expertise. With telehealth solutions and instant diagnosis, we can augment some of the work of doctors, and we can enable them to treat a higher volume of patients.
We recently developed a platform that can diagnose skin conditions from a smartphone to empower primary care physicians. A similar technology is also available directly to patients to stay on top of their skin disease with progression monitoring.
Although we focus on the ecosystem of skin conditions, we recognise that our technologies and expertise can benefit people beyond our targeted users, for example, to ensure access to medical care in remote areas where help isn’t present.
This is why we decided to look into alternative use cases to help make clinical support available for children in conflict zones around the world.
Innovating to save children in war zones
Our journey to innovate for other use cases started with Sally Becker and her mission to save children in war zones. She became known as the Angel of Mostar after she set off to the war-torn Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 90’s. Driving an ambulance, she was able to cross the front line of fire to evacuate wounded children and their mothers.
In 2014, she established the organisation Road to Peace, which is working across the world to provide medical care for sick and injured children in areas of conflict.
1 in 10 children globally are affected by armed conflicts. The number of children living in areas affected by conflicts is estimated to be as high as 246 million. Over the past several decades, schools, health facilities, and health workers have become direct targets, increasing the impact of war on children.
The destruction of medical and public health infrastructures makes it difficult to treat children, and not enough resources are directed to provide adequate care by professionals with expertise in paediatric emergency medicine.
Local physicians tend to flee areas of instability so children are sometimes left to die simply because those tending to them have little or no experience with treating children. Sally therefore established a network of paediatric specialists in a Whatsapp group to facilitate that on-ground medics can get assistance when treating children.
One of the cases was a young boy who got injured after an ISIS militant threw him a grenade and yelled: “Catch!” The boy lost his left arm, and his right arm was immobile due to scarring around the elbow joint. He was told that nothing could be done to help him but by the aid of the specialists in Sally’s WhatsApp group, he was referred for scar release Z-plasty, which enabled him to regain use of his arm.
Unfortunately, the current setup isn’t structured and scalable. With a better and more secure digital solution, additional paediatric specialists could be added to the network, and more children could get help.
At LEO Innovation Lab, we wanted to support this initiative and scale what Sally had started. We agreed to help shape and launch the global telehealth solution Save A Child by sharing our experience and know-how within telehealth and donating resources and technology.
We saw how the tech, we are building to help people with chronic skin conditions, could be applied to helping children in areas affected by war and disaster around the world.
Save A Child is a digital platform that enables on-ground medical staff to correspond directly with a global network of voluntary paediatricians and paediatric specialists, ready to assist remotely. On-ground staff can upload a case, including images, and then correspond with the first available specialist to receive treatment advice to better diagnose and/or care for the patient. As a result, more lives can be saved.
This initiative will bridge the gap that clearly exists in paediatric emergency care and give the children the treatment they deserve.
We committed to provide access to IT infrastructure to accelerate the development of the solution, and we have been helping attract funding to scale the network and digital solution to build the world’s largest network of paediatric specialists. This is only the beginning.
Do you have technology and know-how that can benefit others?
We believe we can help make a global impact by donating ‘IP for purpose’. Practically, we have donated a full-time resource in 2019 to focus on innovating for social good and reusing our technology in remote areas. With this resource, we are supporting a range of projects and partnerships to transfer the know-how we have within telehealth and disease management. We have found that aspects around compliance, product development, and user engagement are particularly valuable for small organisations.
With our expertise in healthtech, we can help, and as a corporate we need to serve our societal function beyond having a financial target as the primary goal.
I believe we have moved from a digital era to a democratised era, and we have an obligation to use the technology, we are sitting on, if the distance toward the goal is simple and not in competition to the business. Even if there isn’t a direct link from your service to an alternative use case, providing know-how can help bring initiatives closer towards the goal and ensure impact.
If your technology and IP can make a positive impact, you should consider donating it. So let me ask you: Do you have technology within your organisation that can benefit others?
Christina Kirk is Director of Impact & Sustainability at LEO Innovation Lab. She’s presenting her insights into IP for purpose and innovating for social good at this year’s Web Summit.
Find out where and when to meet her: differently.dk
