Neal Lesh: "Mobile Applications for Improving Community Health Programs"

CRCS Lunch Seminar

Date: Monday, May 5, 2014
Time: 1:00pm – 2:30pm
Place: 60 Oxford St., Room 330

Speaker: Neal Lesh, Chief Strategy Officer at Dimagi, Inc.

Title: Mobile Applications for Improving Community Health Programs

Abstract:
In this talk, Neal will reflect on lessons learned from 10 years of working on ICT solutions for health programs in low- and middle- income countries. The talk will cover a range of projects and health programs, but focus on CommCare, an open source web- and mobile- cloud product supported by Dimagi, Inc. CommCare is being used by thousands of community health workers in over 30 countries, by a wide range of partner including CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children, and World Vision.  The talk will present evidence evaluating how equipping community health workers with a mobile application can improve access, quality, experience, and accountability of care. The talk will also review many of the challenges and non-technology factors involved in deploying ICT solutions to help improve health programs in low- and middle- income countries.

Bio:

Neal Lesh is a computer scientist with field experience in applying information technologies to help organizations address poverty in low-income regions. He has published and lectured extensively in data visualization, data mining, and automated planning and logistics. He has developed medical record and analysis systems for Partners in Health, the government of Rwanda, and a large AIDS treatment program in Tanzania, and worked with many other Universities and NGOs. He is coordinating a Harvard-funded research project in South Africa.

Neal holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Washington and a masters degree in global health from the Harvard School of Public Health.