Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation working on portable ultrasound machines for women: CEO

By Shalini Bhardwaj
New Delhi [India], January 27 : The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is investigating with partners around the world to ensure that more women receive ultrasounds on time to avoid at-risk births and high-risk pregnancies with the help of AI diagnostic tools that can be handheld.
Mark Suzman, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said, "We have an interesting AI diagnostic tool that you can use with basically a cell phone and a handheld device to do an ultrasound on pregnant mothers, that will help you show at-risk children and at-risk births, high-risk pregnancies, and help them get the treatment they need."
"There are a lot of those areas we're very excited by and investing in right now," he said
These portable ultrasound machines are useful in rural areas.
The letter issued by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is also focused on climate.
Mark Suzman said that Artificial Intelligence and climate change are both priority issues, "Both are really important issues, and I highlight both of them in my Annual letter this year because they are such key areas of importance for the foundation. In climate change, first, we're very focused on what we call climate adaptation, which is how you support those who are mostly smallholder farmers, many in India, many across Africa, who are the most affected by climate change, yet contributed the least to it. They do not create many greenhouse gases. The vast majority of those are farmers. They're having to deal with much bigger weather fluctuations, droughts, floods, etc."
He further said, "We've made a set of very significant investments into agricultural research and development that supports those farmers, creating, for example, flood resilient rice, which we've been working on in India for many years, for example, rice that can stay submerged and still germinate when flooded; or drought resilient crops that can include rice, maize, staple crops that are important in places like Africa, like cassava. We think those are the most important investments because they help those farmers adapt."
According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website, it works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives, guided by the belief that every life has equal value.
In developing countries, it focuses on improving people's health and giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty.
Based in Seattle, Washington, the foundation is led by CEO Mark Suzman, under the direction of co-chairs Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates and the board of trustees.