Eric and Wendy Schmidt announced today Schmidt Global Health, a nonprofit aimed at improving public health by strengthening the systems and advancing the technology used to monitor, identify and respond to emerging disease threats worldwide. 

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Source: Ben Gibbs

Public health professionals in Zambia participate in a Schmidt Global Health-supported virtual community of practice, which connects clinicians through telemedicine technology provided by Project ECHO.

Wendy Schmidt will address the World Health Summit in Berlin and a livestream audience online at 11 a.m. CEST on Tuesday, Oct. 13 to discuss the organization’s work, which expands the mission of the Schmidt Initiative for Long Covid (SILC) beyond a single disease.

A new global mission

The organization will address the public health system itself by fostering collaboration across an international network, using technology to enhance analysis of data, communicating health information and coordinating emergency response. In the months leading up to its unveiling, Schmidt Global Health has boosted public health monitoring for the 2026 World Cup, preserved an essential database of Ebola statistics, symptoms and treatments, and supported measles response in the U.S. and the Pacific Islands.

“In a world as deeply interconnected as ours, in which challenges respect no borders, solutions need to be as swift, responsive and far-reaching as the problems themselves,” said Wendy Schmidt, president and co-founder of Schmidt Global Health. “Schmidt Global Health is embracing the challenge of answering an urgent international need in a rapid yet systemic way, working toward our philanthropic vision of a healthy, resilient and secure world for all.” 

Strengthening public health

By partnering with public health professionals—across international, national, state and local governmental and nonprofit organizations—Schmidt Global Health works to improve public health systems to better monitor and respond to diseases, particularly those that represent emerging worldwide threats.

The organization arrives at a time of growing public health concerns due to shrinking foreign aid and looming potential pandemics.  

“Philanthropy has an opportunity to fill a gap in the public health landscape to improve pandemic detection and response,” said John Redd, CEO of Schmidt Global Health. “We’re excited to expand the SILC model to take on more public health challenges at a time of immense need worldwide.”

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In addition to continuing the work of SILC, Schmidt Global Health is pursuing its mission through four interconnected pillars of work, funding grantees across the following categories: 

  • Network: fostering collaboration across a global network of medical professionals, researchers and public health officials,  

  • Information and Analysis: applying AI, machine learning and other technologies to accelerate research and analysis and information sharing transparently, widely and in real time, 

  • Communication: making public health news accessible and actionable for communities, and 

  • Emergency Response: building increased resilience to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies. 

“AI is already transforming the world of medicine, accelerating data collection and analysis, discovery of treatments and dissemination of information and care,” said Eric Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Global Health. “With Schmidt Global Health, we can deepen that impact and, we hope, prevent the next pandemic before it starts.” 

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