Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Bill Gates to Speak at Summit

Bill Gates, Co-Chair and Trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will address using mobile technologies to improve health outcomes in the developing world. He will present his keynote address at the 2010 mHealth Summit to be held November 8-10 in Washington D.C. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

The Summit is being organized by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health in partnership with NIH, and the mHealth Alliance and is expected to attract more than 2,000 attendees from around the globe, plus feature over 150 exhibitors.

“We are honored to have Bill Gates join the mHealth Summit. The event has quickly become the premier meeting place for leaders focused on research and the delivery of health services through the implementation of mobile technologies,” said Richard Scarfo, Director of the mHealth Summit and Director of Strategic Alliances at the Foundation for NIH.

Gates will be keynoting an interactive discussion on November 9, at 1:00 p.m. EST during the Summit. The event will connect leaders in health, government, academia, philanthropic organizations, and the private sector to discuss new ideas and thoughts on how mobile technology will affect health practices, research, and policy in the U.S. and abroad particularly in low and middle income countries.

Mobile Health or “mHealth” is rapidly becoming a transformative solution for improving quality healthcare services in poor and remote regions around the world. With over 5 billion mobile subscriptions globally, cell phones are becoming a tool to help close the digital divide and increase access to a range of services, including healthcare.

“We are delighted that Bill Gates is speaking to advance the discussion on how modern mobile and computing technologies can save lives and promote healthier communities in even the world’s poorest places,” said David Aylward, Executive Director of the mHealth Alliance whose founding partners include the Rockefeller, United Nations, and Vodafone Foundations, PEPFAR, and the GSM Association.

Verizon Wireless, the partnering sponsor will be joined by other sponsors including Abbott Labs, American Telemedicine Association, CTIS, McKesson Foundation, Microsoft Research, Pfizer, Qualcomm, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Skype, and the West Wireless Health Institute.

Be sure to visit the 2010 mHealth Summit web site for registration and conference details at www.mhealthsummit.org.

For more information, contact Kate Barrett at kbarrett@fnih.org, call (301) 436-2611, or contact Ingrid Madden at imadden@unfoundation.org, call (202) 887-9040.