Health Jam/needed
The One Laptop Per Child project is a non-profit based out of Cambridge Ma. The Goal of OLPC is to improve education in the world^s least developed countries. The method is a low cost educational laptop for constructionist learning.
We, the Health Group, at OLPC are an interdisciplinary group working on medical-related projects associated with the XO, including software, hardware, and content. Health projects can be a local grassroots undertaking, a student group project, a pilot implementation, a global community creation-sprint weekend - we cut across geographic, disciplinary, and institutional boundaries to help all health-related OLPC work move forward.
Our basic premise is that existing Healthcare infrastructure in the countries with XOs could be extended and supported by using the XO. One of the foundation principles of OLPC is Child-Ownership of the laptop. This way the XO is taken home into homes and communities.
The Health group is working on three main areas: Content, Software and Hardware.
In content, we are working with several Healthcare organizations that have already created basic health, sanitation, and dentistry education materials in several languages. Some of this material is printed, some digital, and we are working on converting it to easily displayable and translatable formats.
In Hardware, we are attempting to design a $15 USD device that gives us EKG, Pulse Oxymeter, and Digital Stethoscope. The machine will send the data (along with more data from the XOs webcam and mic) to the XO and this data in turn can be send to a doctor. Any healthcare worker (or teacher) in a remote location can do basic diagnostics on a child using the XO. They can then be diagnosed by a health professional from anywhere, with treatment instructions relayed back to the local healthcare worker.
At the Health Jam we will have up to 50 people working in one or two rooms on health-related projects for the One Laptop Per Child project. We will have Electrical Engineer students working on a low cost health sensor device. There will be Computer Science students working on software. And other students helping to revise and translate content.
From the University we would need a room with basic rectangular tables and chairs for about 50 people. If UW could help us recruit additional participants for teams and advisers to help out everyone that would be even better.
