Building for a Billion: Experiments in Digital Health

The scientists, physicians, and academics invited to this panel have been at the forefront of trailblazing innovations addressing the world’s most pressing healthcare delivery challenges. They have been instrumental in pioneering digital health platforms that have served over 500 million Indian citizens, establishing ICUs in remote geographies, implementing wastewater genomic surveillance, and fostering open-access clinical databases for research communities around the world. As governments and foundations invest billions in digital healthcare, we will explore what worked, what didn’t, and how we know.

SPEAKERS:

Vijay Chandru – Advisor Healthcare, AI and Robotics Tech Park, IISc

Dr. Vijay Chandru is an academic entrepreneur recognized as a ‘Technology Pioneer’ by the World Economic Forum in 2006. His academic career in data and decision sciences spanned over two decades at Purdue University and the Indian Institute of Science. He is a co-founder and executive chairman of Strand Life Sciences, India’s leading precision medicine company since its inception in 2000. (Links to his name and Strand Life Sciences). India’s leading precision medicine company since its inception in 2000. He also co-founded PicoPeta Simputers which designed and manufactured India’s first handheld computers. Vijay was the elected Honorary President (2009- 2012) of the Association of Biotech Led Enterprises (ABLE), the apex trade body that represents the Indian biotech industry. He also serves as an advisor to the Karnataka State on Science & Technology and is an (emeritus) Distinguished Technologist of the Indian National Academy of Engineering adjunct at the Indian Institute of Science.

Sunita Nadhamuni – Chairperson, Arghyam

Sunita Nadhamuni is a social entrepreneur driving technology-enabled programs for societal impact at scale. Her expertise lies in the intersection of technology, health systems and Government; in driving the use of DPGs (digital public goods) and DPI (digital public infrastructure) for delivery of healthcare programs. She was earlier the Global Head of Social Innovation at Dell, where she founded Digital LifeCare, a technology platform from Dell for India’s national NCD (non-communicable diseases) program. In collaboration with an ecosystem of Government and partner institutions, it has reached an enrollment of 230 million people across 32 states today. She is also Chairperson of Arghyam, a charitable foundation for water security in India through community-based intervention. Sunita is on the Advisory Committee for Atal Community Innovation Centers – NITI Aayog, and is on the Board of Health Systems Transformation Program.

Srikanth Nadhamuni – Chairman, 10BedICU.

Srikanth Nadhamuni started his career in the Silicon Valley California, working 12yrs in CPU chip design and internet startups. He was the founder CTO of the Aadhaar project, having setup the Aadhaar technology center in Bangalore and developed the Aadhaar Identity platform. He co-founded the eGovernments Foundation along with Nandan Nilekani in 2003 – focusing on improving governance through technology. He co-founded Khosla Labs a startup incubator, along with Vinod Khosla. He’s chairman of Trustt and Novopay solutions.He was a board member at HDFC bank, India’s largest private sector bank. More recently after the onset of Covid, He launched the 10BedICU project to create ICUs in rural government hospitals across
the country.

Leo Anthony Celi – Principal Research Scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

Leo Anthony Celi has practiced medicine in three continents, giving him broad perspectives in healthcare delivery. As clinical research director and senior research scientist at the MIT Laboratory for Computational Physiology (LCP), and as a practicing intensive care unit (ICU) physician at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Leo brings together clinicians and data scientists to support research using data routinely collected in the process of care. His group built and maintains the publicly-available Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC) database and the Philips-MIT eICU Collaborative Research Database, with more than 50,000 users from around the world. Leo focuses on scaling clinical research to be more inclusive through open access data and software, particularly for limited resource settings; identifying bias in the data to prevent them from being encrypted in models and algorithms; and redesigning research using the principles of team science and the hive learning strategy.

MODERATOR:

Satchit Balsari – Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Professor, Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Dr. Satchit Balsari is an assistant professor in emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and in global health and population at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His interdisciplinary interests in mobile technology, disaster response, and population health have been informed by his clinical practice in the United States and his field work around the world. His research has resulted in innovative applications of mobile, cloud-based technology to address public health challenges in mass gatherings, disasters, and humanitarian crises. Dr. Balsari directs the Harvard India Digital Health Network at the Mittal South Asia Institute. IDHN’s policy outputs have helped shape the technological and policy landscape of digital health in India. He is the co-director of CrisisReady, a research- response platform committed to advancing evidence-based decision making in disasters. He is founding director of the Climate and Human Health Fellowship at Harvard.