Can new technologies help to tackle the health problems of the world's poorest? At first sight, it seems a silly question. After all, the public-health systems in much of sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia and Latin America are rudimentary at best. With many villages having no clean water or basic sanitation, let alone reliable access to clinics and doctors, modern wizardry like molecular diagnostics and digital medical records seem irrelevant.rnBill Gates used to be on the side of thernsceptics. Nearly a decade ago, when he was boss of Microsoft, he delivered a speech at a conference on technology for the developing world, inveighing against the idea that modern technologies like satellite communications links, solar power and internet-enabled computers could magically improve the lives of the poorest. Did they have any idea, he asked his listeners, what it means to live on less than $1 a day? "You're just buying food, you're trying to stay alive."
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