IntelSkooolHealthcareEducationPlatform
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Intel's Skoool software brings study materials to healthcare workers in developing countries
When we consider Intel's contributions to developing nations, it's hard not to hone in on the 5 million-plus Classmate PCs it's shipped over the past four years. This time, at least, Intel is leaving the hardware part of the equation to the Lenovos and HPs of the world and focusing on the software instead. The company just announced the Skoool Healthcare Education platform, a collection of online and offline educational materials designed to help healthcare workers in developing countries better treat women and children, tackling malnutrition, vaccination, communicable diseases and childbirth safety. To be clear, Intel isn't getting into the medical content business -- it didn't write these resources but instead culled them from various third-party sources. The idea is that the company will provide the platform to governments and healthcare workers for free, forgoing what might otherwise be an opportunity to collect licensing fees. (It'll be up to local governments to work with companies like Dell to secure low-cost PCs to run the software.) For now, Intel's launching the program in Sri Lanka, where it already has a working history with the President and Minister of Health, but a rep tells us the outfit hopes to expand the program to sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Central Eastern Europe and parts of Asia, reaching 1 million healthcare workers by the end of 2015. [Image courtesy of Intel]
