Genesis of WISH

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WISH is the philanthropic initiative of Mr. Sunil Wadhwani, an entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, residing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His vision is the driving force advancing WISH to its goal of reaching the 4 Billion people at the bottom of the pyramid with quality healthcare. In his own words:

"When I started WISH Foundation in 2014, my goal was to use innovation to improve primary healthcare. Over 800 million people, just in India, lack access to good quality primary healthcare, and it has a devastating effect on their lives.

The reality is this - almost 6 million children under the age of five die every year, mostly in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. That's 15,000 deaths every day! Almost a thousand women die every day in the same regions, of causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. India accounts for the largest number of these tragedies. Most of these deaths are preventable, and an effective primary healthcare system is the first and most important line of defense.

I thought that technology and innovation could make a difference. Better point-of-care devices could make diagnoses easier and reduce costs. Cell phone and tablet apps could permit better patient monitoring and support front-line health workers. Telemedicine could get physicians to diagnose and treat patients in hard-to-reach areas. Data analytics and artificial intelligence could enable better disease surveillance, prediction and more timely intervention.

No one else was doing this, so I started WISH Foundation. I foresee much more innovation taking place at WISH within the next few years, producing solutions that have a massive reach to last-mile population across India, and replicable to other developing countries."

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