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| Carnegie Mellon University |
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Innovations, Inc. (RII) has awarded Carnegie Mellon University in
Rwanda (CMU-R) an unrestricted grant to advance research on
healthcare information and communication technology (ICT) in
developing countries.
CMU-R
is a partnership between Carnegie Mellon University and the
Government of Rwanda to bolster ICT efforts in Rwanda and throughout
East Africa through graduate education and research. Hedda Schmidtke,
CMU-R assistant professor, and Suzana Brown, scholar-in-residence,
will research healthcare ICT with support from the grant.
"We
are delighted to receive this grant from RII," said Bruce Krogh,
director of CMU-R. "It makes it possible for our faculty and
students to launch new research into ICT innovations that will
significantly improve healthcare in developing countries like Rwanda,
particularly through the use of mobile technology."
The
increasing demands on limited medical resources in developing
countries emphasize how crucial it is to foster creative innovation.
"We
are proud to support this important research in Rwanda," said
Nikhil Balram, MD, president and CEO of RII. "RII is working to
advance Open Innovation in emerging countries through collaboration
between industry and researchers, yielding both technological and
academic advances. The research carried out at CMU-R has the
potential to improve the way healthcare is delivered not only in
Rwanda, but throughout the world."
The
Government of Rwanda plans to form a regional Information and
Communication Technology Center of Excellence in Kigali, and to
establish ICT as a vital part of their economy. CMU-R began offering
the Master of Science in Information Technology in August 2012, and
is currently accepting applications for admission to the program in
August 2013.