AWS to help close healthcare gaps with $100 million in technology support

[Financial News] Amazon Web Services (AWS) will provide $100 million worth of technology support over the next five years to improve access to healthcare for underserved populations worldwide, using artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud technology. The initiative aims to reduce healthcare disparities based on region and income by helping medical institutions and research organizations develop AI-powered diagnostic, research and healthcare services.
According to industry sources on the 10th, the AWS Health Impact Initiative (HII) program is aimed at nonprofits, government agencies, research institutions and companies developing solutions for underserved populations. AWS plans to provide AI and AI agent-related services, along with cloud infrastructure, to support projects from early-stage prototype development through the operation of live services.
The three areas of support are expanding access to quality healthcare, advancing research and innovation in women's and children's health, and improving access to healthy food.
The initiative will first expand AI-powered diagnostic and healthcare services in rural areas and low-income countries with limited healthcare infrastructure. It focuses on supporting the establishment of diagnostic testing systems at medical institutions and medical research, and improving access to community healthcare services.
The initiative will also strengthen research into women's and children's health. According to AWS, just 5% of global health research funding goes to women's health. AWS plans to expand health data related to women and children and support the development of genetic risk analysis and precision medicine technologies.
AI will also be used to address food and nutrition issues. AWS plans to improve access to healthy food for vulnerable populations by supporting technologies that optimize food distribution and forecast trends related to food security.
The initiative follows AWS's Health Equity Initiative (HEI), which it launched in 2021. Through the earlier program, AWS provided $60 million worth of AI and cloud technology to at least 400 organizations.
Medical research and service development using AWS technology support are also underway in South Korea. Korea University's College of Health Sciences used AWS HealthOmics to analyze at least 43,000 genomes and at least 1.4 petabytes of whole-genome data from East Asians. This expanded autism spectrum disorder research, previously focused on Europeans, to include East Asians.
The child and adolescent mental health startup 3R Innovation upgraded the infrastructure for FocusPang, an educational service that uses digital phenotyping technology, with support from AWS. The service has been rolled out to about 1,200 educational institutions.
[email protected] Jang Min-kwon Reporter