There are currently 143 million people waiting for surgeries in lower income countries. And there are organizations ready to bring in doctors and resources — but there’s an information gap between the two, says Joan LaRovere, associate chief medical officer at Boston Children’s Hospital, a professor at Harvard medical School, and co-founder of the Virtue Foundation, an NGO dedicated to solving this information problem.
The Virtue Foundation, founded in 2002, has already created the world’s largest database of NGOs and healthcare facilities, delivering global health services in over 25 countries, organizing medical expeditions, conducting research, and donating medical equipment. As part of this work, the foundation’s volunteers learned about the necessity of collecting reliable data to provide efficient healthcare activity.
The problem is that information sources are incredibly varied and often hidden, says LaRovere.
