AWS commits $100 million to expand health services worldwide
AWS is committing $100 million over five years in AI, agentic services, and cloud infrastructure to organizations working to close health gaps affecting underserved populations worldwide. The AWS Health Impact Initiative will support projects from prototype to production.
- $100 million commitment over five years
- Support covers AI, agentic services, and cloud infrastructure
- Projects target health services, women's and children's health, and food access
- Organizations can apply through AWS or a public application portal
- Credits are valid for 12 months and extendable to 24 months
Funding targets underserved communities
The AWS Health Impact Initiative is open to health nonprofits, government agencies, research institutions, industry, and technology companies. Applicants can seek support for solutions that expand access to care, strengthen health infrastructure, improve research, or address food and nutrition challenges.
AWS said the initiative builds on support it has provided to more than 600 health organizations in more than 80 countries since 2021. That work includes the AWS Health Equity Initiative, which launched in 2021 and provided $60 million of AI and cloud technology to over 400 awardees.
“The AWS Health Impact Initiative helps organizations that support those communities to build with AI and extends our commitment to democratize AI and cloud-powered health innovations that benefit everyone, everywhere,” said Dr. Rowland Illing, chief medical officer and director, Healthcare and Life Sciences at AWS.
Three areas of health impact
The initiative will fund projects across healthcare, with particular emphasis on three areas. The first is expanding access to quality health services, including community and outpatient care, hospital services, diagnostic testing workflows, research, and infrastructure for rural and remote populations, low and middle-income countries, and communities disproportionately affected by disease.
The second focuses on women's and children's health research and innovation. AWS said only 5% of health research funding addresses women's health, while up to half of medicines given to children lack pediatric clinical validation. Projects may improve health data, support research into pediatric and gender-specific genetic risks, and advance precision medicine.
The third area is access to healthy food. AWS cited a 25% increase since 2020 in malnutrition among pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers, and adolescent girls in the 12 countries hardest hit by the global food and nutrition crisis. Supported projects may optimize food distribution, predict food security patterns, and expand access to culturally appropriate food.
How organizations can apply
Organizations can submit proposals through their AWS account team. Those without an account team can apply through a public application portal. Awardees receive credits based on estimated need from the AWS Pricing Calculator, or up to $10,000 to get started.
The credits are valid for 12 months and can be extended to a total of 24 months. Applications must describe the problem being addressed, the proposed solution, and an estimate of how many lives it could positively impact. AWS said applications are reviewed weekly.
Examples of organizations already receiving AWS support include Eve's Ark, which has preserved more than a petabyte of women's health data on AWS, and Care 2 Communities, which serves 350,000 people through community clinics in Haiti. The Akshaya Patra Foundation uses AWS to support meal distribution for more than 2.35 million children across India every school day.