Saving lives one phone call at a time — powered by the cloud

Last week, I visited India to see how technology and the cloud are helping Indian startups, businesses small and large, and government organizations transform. Each time I visit, I’m struck by the ingenuity, creativity and energy of the people I meet, the pace of advancements being made, and the incredible opportunity ahead.

There isn’t an industry or sector of the economy that is not being fundamentally transformed by technology. Every business is digital, and that’s one of the most exciting promises in front of us.

To me, though, it is not about celebrating technology for technology’s sake, but celebrating what others do with that technology — what individual people and organizations imagine and create with technology to make a difference in the world. This is at the center of our mission to empower every person and every orgnization on the planet to achieve more. These words have deep meaning to us — they are at the center of everything we do at Microsoft.  

We are now beginning to see how technology can be applied to help move societies from being digitally poor to digitally rich in all parts of the economy.

One such story that really struck me begins in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where a gentleman by the name Bill Thies was studying in MIT.

Bill found his passion in researching how technology can contribute to the socio-economic development of low-income communities. After receiving his Doctor of Philosophy, Bachelor of Science and engineering degrees from MIT, he decided to follow his passion to change the world, beginning in India.

He joined the Microsoft Research Group in Bengaluru and found colleagues who shared his passion. Together they went on a journey to learn about the fundamental challenges of people in India living at poverty and below the poverty line.

In India, more than 300,000 people die from tuberculosis each year, even though it is a curable disease. Today, the medicine for tuberculosis is available at a low cost and subsidized by the government; however, it comes with a strict regimen — patients must take several pills a day for six months with close monitoring.

Now consider that patients living in rural villages and communities would have to travel several miles to the nearest medical facilities to receive health care and monitoring. For many living below the poverty line, the logistics and economic challenge of having access to these facilities are a great burden — and may mean their livelihood is compromised.

And so, Bill and a colleague, Andrew Cross, came up with an ingenious solution to remove those barriers. Each day, patients simply take their medication and hidden behind the pill capsule is a toll-free number they call to log that they have taken their pills. 

The project, called 99DOTS (Directly Observed Therapy), is centered on an algorithm that generates unpredictable phone numbers for each dosage, healthcare providers receive data and rich analytics around patients’ adherence to their drug regimen, and the providers can monitor patients’ drug intake and notify them when they miss a dosage.

Because of the proliferation of mobile phones in India, this is a simple solution for patients to follow, and a very powerful solution for the medical community to save lives. The technology will be made openly available for the benefit of the global community.

To me, this is what digital transformation means. We can celebrate technology, but if it doesn’t truly empower every person and every organization to achieve more – to develop groundbreaking solutions that can change lives – then we have achieved nothing. And that is the heart of our mission, what we push for with intensity each day — to empower you to go change the world.