Dear All, Nice story in Crosscut on the work of global health groups in South King County:
http://crosscut.com/2012/03/07/health-medicine/22017/Seattle-s-global-healt h-powerhouses-turns-their-attention-to-south-King-County/> “Seattle’s global health powerhouses turn their attention to south King County.”
According to a landscape analysis by PATH, SeaTac and Tukwila have large pockets of poverty with the same health index as Nairobi, Kenya.
Several global health groups are putting their talent in improving lives in their backyard, including UW.
“Gaetano Borriello, UW professor of Computer Science and Engineering, had several undergraduate students working with students in the department’s Human Centered Design program, design prototypes for new mobile devices to help the global-to-local (G2L) project meet one of its objectives: helping south King County residents find cheap, affordable interpreters.
With the assistance of T-Mobile, which plans to deliver 1,000 mobile phones, Borriello’s students designed an Android system using a cellular network rather than multiple land lines and switchboards. If Spanish-speaking residents in Tukwila need an interpreter, for example, they can simply send a text message to a central number that triggers an interpretation request to a network of volunteer interpreters. Within minutes, an interpreter calls back the individual and schedules an appointment.
The G2L project is piloting the new mobile communications system and plans to include additional languages later this year.”
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