Arm Newsroom Blog
Blog April 17, 2024

Transforming Health Outcomes for Millions With Technology Innovation

Arm’s technology partnerships in Ghana are providing improved, more equal healthcare access for millions of people.
By Fran Baker, Director, Sustainability and Social Impact , Arm
Vaccination

As a world-leading technology company, Arm recognizes the power of technology and the positive impact it can have on society. However, we also appreciate that access to technology is not equal across different regions, countries, and continents worldwide, with Arm and the wider industry having a responsibility to solve this challenge.

While technology is not always the answer, it can be truly transformative in the right situation. This is why our approach is to focus on the areas where Arm and our technology can have the most positive impact. We then partner with a wide range of organizations to utilize technology in the most meaningful way possible, taking pride in our role of enabling the enablers.

A great example of this work is through Arm’s partnerships with Gavi, Ghana Health Services and Simprints, which aim to improve access to healthcare and health outcomes for millions of people in Ghana. This led to Arm colleagues visiting the country at the end of 2023 where BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions filmed a special video for us exploring the impact of this work.

Equitable vaccine delivery

Since 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, Arm has been collaborating with Gavi, which is a global health partnership to increase access to immunization in developing countries, to support them and Simprints to deliver equitable vaccine delivery through biometric digital ID technologies.

850 million people worldwide do not have formal identification documents, which means they are being excluded from essential services, with one of these being healthcare. Moreover, only seven percent of children living in the 73 poorest countries are fully immunized. Responding to this need, Simprints developed an Arm-based mobile fingerprint scanning solution called SimprintsID, which enables healthcare partners to verify whether vaccines are delivered to specific people. Such biometric digital IDs are transformative for populations, as they help to enable access to life-saving services and continuity of care.

Multiple evaluations show Simprints can reduce errors, enable vaccinators to find patients faster and increase successful patient tracing. Through working with Ghana Health Services, over 150 Ghanaian healthcare workers have already been trained using the technology as part of the wider immunization program in Ghana. This followed the Simprints’ Gavi-supported deployment in Ghana’s Eastern region, which integrated Simprints into the existing system to provide biometric identification at the point of vaccine delivery.

The partnership between Arm and Simprints started in 2014 where we helped its transition from a student research group to a fully-fledged not-for-profit company. Since the inception of Simprints, Arm has loaned engineers for skills-based pro-bono assignments, provided funding as part of our social impact strategy and made vital network connections. This has led to the continuous development and innovation of Simprints’ biometric digital ID solution and establishing vital partnerships covering national governments, commercial companies and other not-for-profit organizations.

Communicating to low literacy populations

Another part of Arm’s work promoting more equitable healthcare access in Ghana is our partnership with Amplio, which has developed an easy-to-use Talking Book audio device designed for people with low literacy skills. The Arm-based Talking Book requires no internet connectivity, so can be used effectively in remote off-grid environments. Devices like these are essential as nearly 800 million people worldwide can’t read or write, with most of these being women and girls.

Like Simprints, Arm has partnered with Amplio since its inception in 2014 and supported the company to develop and deliver the world’s first science-based communication software platform. The Talking Books, which were deployed in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic deliver content on-demand, in any language, with NGOs using these devices to share critical information in local languages.

Arm not only provides the device processor, the Cortex-M4 processor, and royalty-free access to Keil tools, but also supports Amplio to deliver the service to thousands with pro-bono support as well as financial support for research and development. We are proud to support Amplio’s work serving over two million people across 15 countries.

Arm’s social impact work

We are immensely proud of Arm’s social impact work and how we have used technology to benefit people who are not currently prioritized regarding access to technology and other vital services. Since 2015, we have achieved the following through our social impact work:

  • Reaching 5.6m people directly
  • Reaching 31.6m people indirectly
  • Reaching 794.3m people through innovations catalysed by social impact
  • Creating 97 innovation partnerships
  • Supporting 1000+ young innovators and entrepreneurs supported by Arm
  • Enabling 32,000+ interactions with participation of Arm employees¹
Social impact and innovation at Arm

The work in Ghana and key technology partnerships with Amplio, Gavi and Simprints demonstrate some of the key tenets to Arm’s approach to social impact work in action. In particular, how we help to develop innovative technology solutions and bring together unique skillsets from a broad range of organizations.

At the end of 2023, we were honored to visit Ghana and see the impact of the work, the technology innovation, and the expertise of staff and various organizations in action. The dedication, expertise, entrepreneurship and innovation of the people we met was an inspiration. This work is having a transformative impact in the country through delivering more equal access to healthcare and highlighting the lifechanging potential of technology that is built on Arm.

More information on Arm’s sustainability and social impact work can be found here. To provide feedback on the report or discuss Arm’s work in these areas please contact us at sustainability@arm.com

¹The methodology we use to produce these figures can be found on page 25 of Arm’s Social Impact Innovation report.

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By Fran Baker, Director, Sustainability and Social Impact , Arm
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