instedd.org/author/brookeestin/Author Archive: Brooke Estin
Verboice in Cambodia: Using the Power of Voice for Social Impact
Voice is the most universal and inclusive means of communication, and it’s an ideal way to expand the reach and impact of health and humanitarian technologies. In September 2012, with funding from Spider (The Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions), the InSTEDD iLab Southeast Asia introduced and extended Verboice, an open-source tool which specializes in using interactive voice response (IVR) to support health, safety and sustainable development work. Verboice projects can start small and scale up, making it possible to improve lives even in communities previously closed off by literacy and technological barriers. Read more »
Help Shape our Internship Program
As with all of our activities, we begin with an open mind and proceed with an agile and human centered design process. 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. Whether we’re building tools or creating an internship program, our experience has taught us there there is not a one-size-fits-all model for success. Read more »
2012: A Year in Review
In the wake of the New Year, we took some time to look back on the dynamic journey we took in 2012. Our activities were characterized by contributions to key global health efforts, engagement in several new projects and the development of important strategic partnerships. Our iLab Southeast Asia and iLab Latin America continued to develop their teams and capabilities as a regional leader for collaborative problem solving. We are delighted to share some of our remarkable achievements of 2012. Read more »
InSTEDD Tools Save the World from the Zombie Apocalypse!
Working in the world of public health exposes us to a number of potentially life threatening scenarios. InSTEDD’s tools are designed to work in high stakes environments where people need to quickly share information, coordinate resources, and align their efforts towards the common goal of ensuring the public’s health and safety. In an effort to create a fun and interactive environment for people to learn how our tools work and how significantly they can improve communications, we teamed up with UC Berkeley to create a public health simulation — using Zombies! Read more »
Saving Lives At Birth with Baby Monitor: An interview with Eric Green
In October of 2011, InSTEDD has been working on Baby Monitor, which is a collaborative project focused on improved prenatal and postpartum screening for mothers and infants in resource-poor environments. Baby Monitor is a tool we created using our interactive voice response technology application, Verboice, in order to bring clinical screening directly to women in the critical period before and after birth to detect complications and take action.
Earlier this year, I had the privilege of sitting down with Eric Green, the man who led the Baby Monitor project. Eric eloquently explained how the project began, how it works, what value is being created and what social impact we are striving to achieve. Read more »
Giving Women a Voice in their Health: Baby Monitor needs your vote!
We are proud that the Baby Monitor project from the iLab Latin America has been selected as a finalist for be one of the finalist for the “She Will Innovate Technology Solutions Enriching the Lives of Girls” challenge! In order for us to win we need your vote so that we can win the $10,000 prize! Read more »
BarCamp Phnom Penh: Unconference 2012
There is no shortage of conferences focusing on technology, design and innovative thinking. It seems that … Read more »
InSTEDD iLab Latin America: Working to Mitigate Social and Environmental Risks in Rio de Janeiro Part 1
We are thrilled to be able to share with you some of the work that the … Read more »
Rio 2.0 Demo Alley Conference: Building Technologies for Social Impact
Early this month, InSTEDD was fortunate enough to have participated in the USRio+2.0 Demo Alley event held at the Stanford University, Graduate School of Business. Demo Alley, also known as “speed geeking,” follows a similar format as the well known “speed dating” concept where the purpose is to encourage participants to meet a large number of new people and be exposed to a variety of innovative ideas that help bridge the gap between technology and sustainable development. Read more »
One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s Catalyst for Innovation: How a simple toilet paper roll led to the creation of the Reporting Wheel
Although the Reporting Wheel 1.0 wasn’t very impressive to look at, it represented something much bigger than the sum of its parts. The most important thing about this experience was the fact that all you needed to create innovative solutions was a good idea and the willingness to try something unexpected. Ideas are easy to come by, but the iLabs provide a great way to try them out and see what works and what doesn’t faster than anything else we’ve seen. Read more »
2011 Reflections: Technologies, iLabs and Accolades
It has been quite the year for our team here at InSTEDD and our innovation labs in Southeast Asia and Latin America. As we prepare to enter the year ahead we wanted to take a moment to look back over a few of our highlights from 2011. Read more »
In Her Own Words: Channe Suy Attends OpenMRS Implementers Meeting
This past October, Channe Suy, product manger at iLab Southeast Asia traveled to Rwanda to participate in the OpenMRS community’s annual Implementers Meeting for five days of collaboration, sharing of implementation experiences and working together to improve OpenMRS. Read more »
Video: How ‘Watchfire’ Helps the Red Cross
Watchfire is a simple and yet powerful system that initiates and tracks the process of building a volunteer response team with people who are geographically close to each other through phone calls and text message. Read more »
Why We Love Remindem
New and expecting mothers have a lot on their plates. There are vitamins to take, doctors … Read more »
iLab Latin America is Finalist in Changemakers’ Citizen Media: A Global Innovation Competition
Voting ends on November 23rd so get your vote in now and please help us spread … Read more »
Introducing Pollit
We are thrilled to announce that we’ve launched another new tool — Pollit. Pollit is a … Read more »
Introducing Remindem
We are thrilled to announce that we’ve launched a new tool — Remindem. Remindem is a … Read more »
iLabs: Community, Connection and a Culture of Innovation
For the last few years, CTO Eduardo Jezerski and his colleagues at InSTEDD have been working … Read more »
New Video — ECHO: Electronic Communications for Health Operations
Have a look at our new video highlighting the ECHO: Electronic Communications for Health Operations project that we did with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH). Read more »
Contagion: A look at our work through the perspective of the movie
The movie Contagion, from Warner Bros. and directed by Steven Soderbergh, is an action-thriller centered on … Read more »
The Launch of the iLab Latin America
With this week’s launch of iLab Latin America in Buenos Aires, InSTEDD is taking a major step in expanding an approach to sustainable local capacity building. Read more »
From the TED Prize to TEDxPhnom Penh
InSTEDD was created as a result of Larry Brilliant’s TED prize in 2006, to help make the world safer by making technological innovations accessible. Read more »
Hans Rosling at the InSTEDD iLab!
Hans Rosling, one of the most interesting medical statisticians alive, spoke at the iLab on the day of our Buddhist Blessing Ceremony to offer a few thoughts to our iLab staff. Read more »
Prince Mahidol of Songla, Magic Wheels, and the iLab
Each year the Prince Mahidol Award Conference selects global leaders in public health for recognition of their lifetime achievements… Read more »
“Ebyen kile tranbleman de te a ap fin pase potoprens en?”
When is the earthquake going to end? is what the phrase above means in Kreyol, and it is one of the messages our team in Haiti received today. Read more »
Emergency Information Service Launched in Haiti
A free and open source Emergency Information Service InSTEDD developed with Thomson Reuters Foundation was just launched in Haiti late Saturday night, an incredible feat after late-night Kreyol translations… Read more »
The Economist (again!), Fuse, and Chris Blow
the Technology Quarterly section of the Economist has selected a focus on InSTEDD and our work in Asia, this time for sensors, sensitivity, and the use of mobile devices for data collection. The pleasant face you see on the GeoChat screenshot… Read more »
New H1N1 Swine Flu Citizen’s Guide Update
The new Pandemic Influenza Citizen’s Guide, edited by Sarah Booth and Kelsey Hills-Evans to incorporate information around the recent H1N1 (Swine) flu outbreak, is now posted here. Read more »
Using InSTEDD’s Riff for Tracking and Collaborating around the 2009 H1N1 Flu Event
In 2009 InSTEDD stood up a workspace to aid experts and responders collaborating on the emerging reports related to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic influenza event. Read more »
InSTEDD Citizen’s Guide to Pandemic Influenza (the Flu Manual)
InSTEDD has been very happy to host the Flu Manual on our site for the past … Read more »
InSTEDD in the news
As a result of the news percolating out, InSTEDD has been covered, one way or another, by the local affiliate’s ABC Evening News, by CBS Radio, by Business Week, Lancet, Nature, New Scientist, and more than thirty blogs. Read more »
A Brilliant Transition
It’s valuable to remember that Larry’s TED Wish, for “Better Early Detection, Better Early Response” against emerging infections and natural disasters, has sparked ideas… Read more »
Introducing TrackerNews.net
Over the past few months, InSTEDD has quietly launched a new website that focuses on humanitarian and health technology: www.TrackerNews.net. It is ready now for a little noise! Read more »
