Instead of throwing cash at causes, HP is trying to improve systemic problems like infrastructure and scale. It’s one thing to give a non-profit money; it’s another to help it expand its reach and efficiency at the same time. HP is doing this by tweaking its technology to help solve issues and by devoting company expertise where it is most needed.
HP’s two most recent campaigns focus on malaria detection and counterfeit drugs in Africa. HP partnered with Ping to equip workers in Botswana with smartphones to collect malaria data, notify the Ministry of Health about outbreaks, and tag data and disease surveillance with a GPS coordinate. If successful, the network of data wi ll make up a geographic map of disease transmission in the country to speed up response time and scale up net coverage.
The tech company is also tackling counterfeit drugs by adapting one of its own technologies. HP tracks when its parts and technology are being counterfeited. With some subtle tweaks, that same technology is being used to see when drugs and prescriptions are falsely labeled all through basic texting and SMS. The program, in partnership with major pharmaceutical company mPedigree, puts a scratch-off code on each box of medicine. Buyers can then text that code to a system that returns, within 10 seconds, whether the medication is real or fake.
Finally, HP is testing a mobile health monitoring solution in Singapore. For eight weeks, 100 patients in Singapore hospitals will wear a watch-like device that transmits clinical data like 24-hour blood pressure readings and heartbeat patterns, all sent wirelessly back to the hospital.
HP ’s social outreach...
