Devex @ SXSW: These doctors turned entrepreneurs are using tech to transform health

Devex Podcasts

Vitala Global Foundation is a nonprofit organization that works with girls and women to develop digital solutions for stigmatized sexual and reproductive health issues, including abortions. Last week, Aya Contigo, its digital companion for abortion and contraception support that launched in Venezuela and has since expanded to the United States, was a winner of South by Southwest’s Innovation Showcase. Dr. Roopan Gill, co-founder and CEO of Vitala Global Foundation, was in Austin, Texas, to talk about the role technology can play in providing more accessible reproductive health resources, especially amidst growing restrictions on reproductive rights. “It's not just an app providing passive information,” she said. “We're really trying to see how it acts as a glue, as an ecosystem integrator, especially in this day and age where we have so much complexity around abortion access.” Gill spoke with Devex for Devex @ SXSW, a special edition of our This Week in Global Development podcast. The episode also featured Jarone Lee, co-founder of Health Tech Without Borders, a nonprofit organization working on digital health solutions, including telemedicine and chatbots, in the context of humanitarian disasters. Listen to the podcast to hear how these two doctors turned social entrepreneurs are leveraging technology to improve health care access in some of the most challenging settings to deliver care.