2009 NATIONAL HERO
WiRED International
For its achievements in using information technology to provide
up-to-date health education and medical information in developing,
post-conflict, and isolated regions of the world
WiRED International’s mission is to ensure equal access to information that saves lives. Providing equipment, coordination, and contacts, it brings vital information to communities coping with the challenges of war, poverty, and dislocation. Within a single day, WiRED can convert an empty room into a technology hub with global reach.
Executive director Gary Selnow, Ph.D. (a professor at San Francisco State University) began WiRED’s work in 1997 while serving as a Fulbright Fellow at Croatia’s University of Zagreb just following the Balkan War. Dr. Selnow was moved by the war’s impact on the region’s children, who were without adequate educational resources and had no access to basic computer technologies. With a small seed grant from USAID, he launched WiRED—inspired by the idea that access to the Internet could help end the children’s isolation and enhance their education. That idea evolved into a larger effort to provide medical education and information resources for healthcare educators and practitioners in troubled regions.
WiRED’s technology information centers have served some one million people annually at nearly 100 locations in 12 countries on four continents. WiRED’s Medical Information Centers supply isolated doctors and other healthcare professionals with computers, Internet access, and other technology; medical curricula; and collaboration with well-trained doctors in developed countries. WiRED’s Community Health Information Centers connect people at the grassroots level to interactive computer-based information—often the only source of health information available to them.
WiRED believes that no medication or medical device can do as much to promote good health in remote regions as can a doctor’s knowledge of good medicine. In addition to helping bridge the information gap, WiRED operates on the philosophy that its Centers should help promote reconciliation in communities through local collaboration and equal access.
Award Presenter
Robert A. Corrigan Ph.D., has served as the 12th president of San Francisco State University since September 1988. He previously served nine years as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Boston. At both universities, he has made civic engagement and the application of university expertise to community issues a campus hallmark.
The Challenge: Leveraging Information Technology to Improve Health Globally
When administering health care in isolated regions of the globe, information can be just as valuable as medical equipment—and oftentimes it is in shorter supply. Especially in countries where resources are scarce, access to knowledge can save lives. Computers, Internet connection, satellite video communication, technologies that we take for granted in the United States—can be very difficult to bring to developing or war-torn countries.
Organizations like WiRED International work to provide equal access to technology to countries that need it. High-tech telemedicine connections can provide more than just information; they can forge long-distance bonds across continents. The world’s neediest doctors can connect to the world’s best trained and equipped medical professionals in order to discuss best practices, create solutions, and promote good medicine.
The School of Public Health Responds
- Professor Eva Harris specializes in building scientific capacity in developing countries. Since 2004, she has been working to integrate information technologies in clinical and epidemiological studies in Nicaragua. Managua, the site of the study, experiences frequent interruptions in electrical, phone, and Internet service. Harris’s team combated these challenges with a series of low-cost yet cutting-edge information and communication technologies.
- The School’s Center for Global Public Health provides fellowships to support international travel and research for graduate students over the summer. Last year doctoral student Terence Lo researched the effectiveness of telemedicine in Uttar Pradesh, India, in conjunction with Professor Julia Walsh.
- Associate Clinical Professor Deryk Van Brun has worked with nonprofit and private companies to provide online access to medical information for patients and physicians. His recent research focuses on how information technology can be used to better understand health measures and manage the health of people in their communities.
