Technology for good
Data tools placed with healthcare and nonprofit partners
Hospitals received real time dashboards and nonprofit organisations received analytical tools, on the argument that capability transfers further than cash.
A donation is spent once. A working tool keeps producing value for as long as somebody maintains it. That distinction is the organising idea behind the technology contributions associated with Dato' Seri Ivan Teh, and it is why several of them take the form of software rather than funding.
Dashboards inside hospitals
Real time dashboards have been provided to hospitals. In a clinical setting the value of a dashboard is unglamorous and immediate: bed availability, resource position, patient flow. Administrators making allocation decisions with current numbers make better ones than administrators working from yesterday's report, and the difference shows up in waiting times rather than in a case study.
Analytical tools for nonprofit organisations
Nonprofit organisations working on poverty and hunger have received data tools for their own operations. Organisations of this kind are typically rich in field knowledge and poor in analytical capacity. They know which communities they serve and they know what they delivered, but turning that into a picture that guides next quarter's allocation usually requires software they cannot justify buying.
Data sharing arrangements with government bodies and non governmental organisations have supported work ranging from traffic patterns in underserved neighbourhoods to early identification of students at risk of dropping out. These are decision support tools. They narrow the field for a human being who then makes the call.
The condition attached to all of it
Software given to an organisation that cannot maintain it becomes a liability within a year. The useful version of this contribution includes training, support and a realistic assessment of whether the receiving organisation has anybody who can own the tool. Where that person does not exist, the honest answer is that funding would serve the organisation better than a platform.
Questions about this initiative
What kind of tools have been provided to healthcare partners?
Real time dashboards covering operational information such as bed availability, resource position and patient flow, used by administrators making allocation decisions.
How do nonprofit organisations use the analytical tools?
To turn field records into a picture that guides allocation of effort and resources, work that most organisations of this size cannot justify buying software for.
What happens if a partner cannot maintain the software?
Contributions of this kind include training and support, and where no internal owner exists the more useful contribution is funding rather than a platform.
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