InSTEDD Booklet

Innovative Support to EmergenciesDiseases and Disasters

We envision a world where

communities everywhere

design and use technology

to continually improve their

health, safety and

development.

our vision

Working with a community in Mukdahan, Thailand to help

prevent disease outbreaks such as malaria and dengue.

our mission

is to improve health, safety and

sustainable development by:

The iLab Southeast Asia team tests one of our tools with a

doctor in a rural clinic outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia,

• Building Capacity within communities to foster a local culture of innovation

• Creating Collaboration Tools for social good

• Collaborating with End Users through a human-centered design and development process

• Ensuring Usefulness & Impact through research and evaluation

who we are

InSTEDD was created by Google.org, the

Rockefeller Foundation, TED and others to

catalyze collective action for detection and

response to global public health threats.

We have expanded upon that original vision

into a non-profit organization focused on

using a blend of social and technical

approaches to improve global health, safety

and sustainable development.

A nurse checks a child from a nearby rural village into the main hospital in Mukdahan, Thailand.

Social Responsibility: Progress can be made in reducing human suffering, death, and disease on a local and global level. We believe we have a responsibility to use all our skills, knowledge and experience to make a positive impact on global health and safety.

Collaboration: Collaboration is a driving force in overcoming silos and divisions, allowing different communities and sectors to work together effectively to achieve common goals. We shape our programs and technologies to support and enhance local and global collaboration aimed at achieving meaningful social impact.

Agility: We believe the most effective programs and technologies are flexible and iterative and are built on joint participation of the communities they are meant to serve. We work in incremental and adaptive steps, side by side with our stakeholders and beneficiaries, to jointly design programs and technologies that have measurable impact.

our values

As an organization,

we are committed to

guide our work

towards a vision

based on shared

values.

In January 2010, InSTEDD participated in the first Bar Camp Yangon (Myanmar). As of January 2010, this was the largest Bar Camp in history with more than 3000 participants

what we doInSTEDD designs and develops scalable,

easy to use, low cost technologies for social impact. By helping partners enhance collaboration, share knowledge and improve information flow, communities can better deliver critical services to those in need.

Health workers in rural Thailand test InSTEDD technology. This team uses the popular tool, GeoChat, primarily for disease reporting and outbreak response coordination.

We work with governments,

universities, corporations,

international health organizations, NGOs and local communities around the world. We go to the field to listen

and learn about the challenges and opportunities. Where solutions already exist, we integrate them. If another

technology can be adapted to meet the need, we re-purpose it. If a genuine gap is found where no solution

exists and no market pressures are driving the necessary innovation, then we design and develop low cost,

scalable open source tools ourselves.

our approach

Agile Development

We work closely with end-users and stakeholders, creating and adapting software to address the most pressing needs from the field. As a result, culturally appropriate designs that empower the end-users appear faster, as do new and productive uses for the applications.

Local Capacity Building

Our local partners participate in the full life cycle of new system design — rapid prototyping, design, development, quality assurance and field support in the local language, culture and context — thus creating a long-term asset for the country.

Open Architecture, Open Source

Our systems conform to a set of architectural principles that allow them to be used as-is or as building blocks for larger solutions. Our tools can be used locally or globally in innovative ways as a platform for social and humanitarian programs.

Our work is guided by these basic principles:

InSTEDD supports humanitarian

organizations, local

communities, and government ministries by lling the

communication gaps that

hinder collaboration. We use a

unique and effective

combination of human-centered design, software

development, domain expertise

and local leadership.

Touring a lab facility in Cambodia with the National

Institute of Public Health.

where we

work

InSTEDD’s innovative approach,

which facilitates collective action by local

partners, is being successfully applied around

the world — from pioneering efforts to

integrate disease surveillance and response

systems in Southeast Asia to implementation

of a nationwide communications system to aid

victims of the Haiti earthquake in 2010.

We have worked in over 15 countries,

including Argentina, Bangladesh, Cambodia,

China, Ghana, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Laos,

Mexico, Mozambique, Rwanda, Thailand,

USA, Vietnam, Zimbabwe.

An aerial view of the Mekong River sub-basin region, a hot zone for infectious disease such

as H1N1, HIV, TB and Malaria. InSTEDD works throughout the region to use, design

and develop technologies for early detection and better response to public health threats.

ArgentinaBangladeshCambodiaChina

HaitiIndonesiaKenyaLaos

MexicoMozambiqueRwandaGhana

ThailandUSAVietnamZimbabwe

our projects

InSTEDD’s approach

facilitates collective

action by local partners

and is being successfully

applied globally.

Our work is often focused on addressing life-threatening

gaps in communication and knowledge sharing. At the local

level our projects have ranged from implementing an

appointment reminder system for HIV patients in Cambodia

to supporting maternal child health workers in Mexico in text-

messaging life-saving information to their patients. At the

policy level, we are advising organizations like the United

Nations, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Centers

for Disease Control on the strategic implementation of health

information systems and collaboration technology ventures.

In addition, we design comprehensive research processes to

rigorously evaluate the role of technology in creating a

positive impact worldwide.

Health Informatics Public Private Partnership (HIPPP)This project focuses on promoting health system strengthening within multiple developing countries , including Cambodia, Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

American Red Cross WatchfireWith a grant from Cisco, we worked with the American Red Cross to develop Watchfire, a tool with potential to significantly decrease time required to mobilize community responders to disasters.

US Veterans Administration (VA)We consulted the VA on the use of web-monitoring tools, social media aggregation analysis and collaborative decision support technology to improve the early detection of disease events. 

Emergency Response System (EIS)We worked with the Thomson Reuters Foundation to provide the backbone that supported agencies using SMS in the relief efforts after the 2010 Haiti earthquake. We tested in the UK and Indonesia.

Electronic Communications for Health Organizations (ECHO)We worked with the NYC Department of Health to build ECHO, a tool that improves their ability to gather emergency preparedness and response-related data in the field.

Innovation Lab (iLab) Latin AmericaIn 2011, we launched our second iLab in Buenos Aires, Argentina with the goal of building technological capacity for addressing health, safety and sustainable development issues in the Latin American region.

Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC)We partnered with BRAC to improve their mobile health and development programs by increasing the reach of SMS and voice services to all 150 million citizens of Bangladesh.

Innovation Lab (iLab) Southeast AsiaIn 2008, with funding from Google.org, the Rockefeller Foundation and others we launched the first iLab located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to build regional capacity for the use, design and development of ICT tools to control and prevent disease outbreaks.

Clinton Health Access Initiative/Cambodia National Malaria Center (CHAI/CNM)We are working with CHAI/CNM to provide mobile tools to help eliminate malaria through real-time nationwide case reports and anti-malaria stock level control.

Lao PDR/Thailand Cross Border CommunicationHealth workers on the Lao PDR/Thailand border are using InSTEDD tools to improve local coordination and cross border communications around disease surveillance and response.

Thai Bureau of Epidemiology (BOE) Influenza Surveillance System The Thai BOE built upon InSTEDD tools to send mobile alerts and reminders as part of a nationwide influenza-like illness surveillance system.

Thai Surveillance and Rapid Response Teams (SRRTs)InSTEDD tools have been used to improve communication between the SRRTs, village health volunteers, livestock staff, provincial health staff, and emergency medical response teams.

how we

work

InSTEDD supports communities by identifying gaps in collaboration that can be filled with user-friendly technologies and services.  By working in the field where the “rubber hits the road”, we join forces with our local partners to create the solutions to their most challenging problems.

This unique “social-technical” approach achieves fast, scalable, low-cost solutions that are aligned with local priorities.

The InSTEDD Innovation Labs ensure ongoing, locally driven improvements to the tools based on the evolving needs of the communities they serve. The iLabs play a central role in ensuring positive social impact beyond the life of a single project.

Touring a hospital facility in Thailand in order to learn current workflows and

identify opportunities to improve the speed and accuracy of disease reporting.

our

tools

Based on years of experience around the world, we have created a suite of tools and services. All of our tools can used individually or integrated together as building blocks for larger solutions. InSTEDD technologies meet or exceed the relevant standards for their domain and allow the reliable and secure sharing of data with other systems.

All of these technologies are open source and freely available for anyone wanting to use them. Each of these tools can be tailored to individual needs and integrated with other tools. We are actively engaged with our users and continue to evolve and scale the tool capabilities in order to maximize positive social impact.

GeoChat is a collaboration tool that allows anyone to chat, report, and get alerts offline through SMS or online on their computers.

Nuntium is a tool that allows anyone to build robust and scalable messaging applications.

Seentags is a service that helps extract accurate information from text reports.

Veegilo aggregates disease indicator numbers from national databases into a common space.

Riff is a tool that helps groups analyze and visualize multiple streams of information and collaborate over live data.

Mesh4X is a set of libraries, services and applications that allow data to be synchronized across multiple applications, databases and files.

Verboice is a highly customizable application that empowers users and developers to build their own interactive voice response systems.

The Reporting Wheel is a non-electronic device that simplifies data reporting for the most remote workers, including those with literacy challenges.

Resource Map helps people track their work, resources and results geographically in a collaborative environment.

Verboice

GeoChat

Nuntium Seentags

Veeglio

Riff

Resource Map

Mesh4x

PollitPollit helps you collect opinions, feedback and status updates from people, wherever they roam.

Reporting Wheel

RemindemRemindem helps you keep people informed of important things going on in their life and work.

Task Me UpTask Me Up helps you collaborate around unorganized data to better process information.

Three young girls play in the courtyard of a hospital outside Phnom Penh, Cambodia, while their parents receive treatment.

our

iLabs

InSTEDD’s Innovation Labs build local

capacity for designing and developing

technologies for social good. Each iLab

promotes cross-sector collaborations that

bring people together to explore solutions

to regional health, safety and development

problems.  By working collaboratively and

across disciplines to create a positive

impact, the iLabs are promising social

enterprises.

The iLab Southeast Asia team works with a community in Cambodia to test tools developed for improving

malaria control and prevention.

Our approach is a unique blend

of the social and technological

development spheres, which

have traditionally worked on

problem solving in isolation from

each other.  The nations,

communities, and local

organizations we assist know

best what their challenges and

needs are, and we in turn count

on their knowledge and

leadership to help develop

solutions that address the

unique needs of each

context. The iLab strategy

focuses on a combination of

user-centered design, agile

software development

techniques, and creative cross-

disciplinary collaboration.

iLab Southeast AsiaIn 2008, InSTEDD launched the first iLab, located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with the goal of building technological capacity for addressing health, safety and developmental issues in the Mekong Basin.

Representative projects include working closely with Cambodia Communicable Disease Control to strengthen the agency’s internal communication by using InSTEDD’s technology and assisting the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD (NCHADS) to develop an appointment reminder system as an extension to their current patient information system.

iLab Latin America The iLab Latin America, our second iLab founded in 2011 and located in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is the result of a partnership between InSTEDD and Manas, a Buenos Aires-based software development and consulting firm.

Our Latin America team is helping NGOs, governments, social entrepreneurs and other organizations in the region design and use collaboration technology tools to better deliver critical services to vulnerable populations, while building and optimizing their technological capacities to support their humanitarian work.

innovationlabs

iLabLatin America

iLabSoutheast Asia

InSTEDD iLabs act as enabling environments for technology

transfer and collaboration between software developers,

governments, NGOs, universities, private sector companies,

local communities and experts from a variety of disciplines.

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS LEADERSHIP

our network

InSTEDD’s network of strategic partners

include community groups, government

agencies, leading universities, private sector

companies, and humanitarian organizations.

Our interdisciplinary team of public health

experts, scientists, and software engineers

works closely with leading consultants and

strategic partners in Asia, Africa, Europe and

the Americas to develop solutions to health,

safety and development problems.

project profile

Emergency Information

System (EIS)

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

The EIS service was part of an ecosystem of organizations and tools revolving around mobile services provided through the ‘4636’ short code. EIS allowed people in Haiti to report problems (missing persons, shelter, food issues) over SMS and to get accurate information by neighborhood.

InSTEDD’s Nuntium message hub had direct connections to Haitian telecommunications companies, through which incoming aid requests were received in Haitian Creole, routed to Riff/EIS for analysis, shared with other organizations to translate, tag, geocode, visualize and dispatch.

The Haitian government worked together with other NGOs to send information messages to the population to help cope with subsequent threats and accelerate their recovery. We worked on the airfield in Port au Prince helping with the setup and use of the technologies and remained for the duration of the Search and Rescue phase. In addition, we received a US State Department letter of gratitude for our work with the UN Search and Rescue Dispatch Center.

Port-au-Prince was catastrophically affected by the January 2010 earthquake. Countless structures were

damaged and over 230,000 people were killed.

our impact

While technologies developed today may meet

current needs, it is impossible to accurately

predict the needs of the future.  In order to

ensure that impact is sustained long term,

having strong local capacity to develop the next

wave of solutions is critical. The people within

the communities we serve best understand the

challenges and why they occur, therefore, are

the best ones to lead the process of designing

and implementing a solution.  With the support

of technology, those in need can be better

connected to valuable resources and important

contacts which helps those in the field do their

work more effectively.

A father holds his sick childʼs IV bag up as they receive

treatment at a local health center.

Millennium Development Goals 4, 5 & 6Reduce Child Mortality | Improve Maternal Health | Combat Major DiseasesAchieving the MDGs requires local and international collaboration. We help partners accelerate and measure progress towards achieving the MDGs by supporting existing procedures and protocols recommended by the WHO as well as explore new opportunities that tap into the emergent power of mobile technology.

➡ Mobile technology and medical record systems integration to support HIV worker and patient communication

➡ Design and roll out of national Malaria elimination applications using mobile phones

➡ Platform of free and open source tools that can easily, quickly and cheaply be extended to implement new applications and workflows at national scale

Community Resilience Communities and the agencies that support their wellbeing regularly suffer due to lack of information and coordination. We improve community resilience by using context appropriate collaboration tools that improve internal and external communication.

➡ Mobile based alerts & reminders for health workers and patients

➡ Database synchronization software to support information sharing

➡ Mobile integration of health record systems➡ Disaster and post-conflict response tools built on top of

collaboration and machine-based analytics software

Early Warning and ResponseThe most effective way to deal with emerging threats is through a rapid early warning and early response system. We work with field workers and decision makers throughout the health information hierarchy to help them share information and quickly coordinate responses.

➡ Disease surveillance and rapid response team coordination➡ Field epidemiology tools for disease outbreak analysis➡ Web-monitoring tools, social media aggregation analysis and

collaborative decision support technology to improve early detection of disease events

Local Capacity BuildingBy listening to our users and incorporating their input, we ensure the cultural appropriateness and the sustainability of our products. We work with local partners throughout the full life cycle of new system design — rapid prototyping, design, development, quality assurance and field support in the local language, culture and context — thus creating a long-term asset for the country.

➡ Innovation Labs in Southeast Asia and Latin America➡ Public-private partnerships to promote health system

strengthening within multiple developing countries➡ Sponsorship & participation in local events such as TEDx, Bar

Camps and Foo Camps

strategyareas

Through a human-centered

process of software

development, community

leadership and on-the-job

training, InSTEDD uses a

“social-technical” approach

to develop solutions that

support health, safety and

sustainable development.

get

involved

No two places, problems, or cultures are exactly alike. Our goal is to find a solution that is efficient, effective and appropriate for each situation.

We believe that everything can be built in smaller, useful parts, delivering value in weeks and not years.

Whether you need help refining your idea, doing user-centered field design, defining a new architecture, or building software, our experience can help you achieve your goals.

Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

Innovative Support to EmergenciesDiseases and Disasters

480 S California Ave, Suite 104Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA

Boris KrygelGerente de Programas

ilabamericalatina.orgBartolomé Cruz 1818, 1° Vicente López, B1638BHRBuenos Aires, Argentina

+54 (911) 5701 [email protected]

América LatinaiLab

Boris KrygelGerente de Programas

ilabamericalatina.orgBartolomé Cruz 1818, 1° Vicente López, B1638BHRBuenos Aires, Argentina

+54 (911) 5701 [email protected]

América LatinaiLab

+1-650-326-5000

[email protected]

@instedd

facebook.com/instedd

www.instedd.org