EMG-Health | Episode 103
This week, Jonathan is joined by Sharon Allen, Co-founder and Executive Director of the World Telehealth Initiative (WTI), a non-profit organisation. Using innovative technology to connect volunteer healthcare professionals with those in need, WTI provides sustainable medical expertise to under-resourced communities around the world. They discuss how Allen came to co-found the WTI and detail the valuable work that the organisation does worldwide. Allen also touches on how COVID-19 helped develop telemedicine and how it is being used to help Ukrainian surgeons while at war.
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If you would like to learn more about the WTI, please check out their website at https://www.worldtelehealthinitiative.org.
Speaker Bio:
Sharon Allen is the Co-founder and Executive Director of the World Telehealth Initiative (WTI), a non-profit organisation that provides medical expertise to under-resourced communities around the world through telemedicine. Allen has been asked to speak at numerous conferences, including the notable White House Telehealth Innovation Summit, Nigeria’s Healthcare Today – Keynote, MENA Telehealth Conference, AAFP Global Health Summit, American Telehealth Association, and more.
In 2019, Allen was selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) to serve on their Digital Health Board of Advisors and Roster of Experts. Currently, she is working with the WHO on their Telehealth Roadmap for the Underserved by working to harness the power of digital health technologies.
Before the WTI, Allen had graduated with a degree in secondary education and teaching and earned a BSc in nutrition and wellness from the California Polytechnic State University–San Luis Obispo, USA. Allen then spent 25 years working at a landscape supply company, which had outlets across California, where she worked her way up to become President.
Allen talents lie elsewhere as well, having competed in over 10 triathlons, medalling in all events. She has performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation three times, including once on a child who was pulled from the bottom of a swimming pool. Luckily, thanks to Allen stepping in, the child survived.