The Mobile Medicine Man: Ryan Littman-Quinn ’05
College: Boston College ’09
Current: Director of Mobile Health Informatics at the Botswana-UPenn Partnership
Current: Director of Mobile Health Informatics at the Botswana-UPenn Partnership
Q: What has your post-Rivers path been like?
A: Untraditional! I majored in business and marketing at Boston College, but I also had a minor in philosophy and I studied graphic design (influenced by the computer graphics course I took at Rivers). When I was about to graduate, my Dad sent me a tech newsletter that had a story about a startup called ClickDiagnostics. They were doing software development for telemedicine using smartphones. I contacted them and ended up doing an internship there. So, I got into what’s called “mHealth” – using mobile technology in healthcare. Through my work, I met a doctor at UPenn. She had received a small grant to do a pilot in Botswana and asked me if I wanted to be the manager for that project starting in January 2010. I was only supposed to be in Botswana for a few months, but things went well and there was a lot of interest in the ideas we were developing, so I keep getting contract extensions. I’m now the country director for a health informatics capacity-building program in Botswana. I live in the capital city of Gabarone, but I travel often for consulting work and conference presentations for UPenn. In the past three years I have traveled to Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, India, Bangladesh, Germany, Belgium, Guatemala, and several regions in the U.S.
Q: What excites you about your work?
A: How technology can be used to improve people’s lives. Mobile technology is more of a convenience in the U.S., but in developing countries it can significantly improve healthcare for large populations of people and make a big social impact. That’s what drives me.
A: How technology can be used to improve people’s lives. Mobile technology is more of a convenience in the U.S., but in developing countries it can significantly improve healthcare for large populations of people and make a big social impact. That’s what drives me.
Q: How did Rivers prepare you for this experience?
A: My overall well-rounded nature, which I developed at Rivers, has served me well: being able to adapt, communicate well with others, play pick-up soccer anywhere in the world, multi-task, and analyze situations and problem-solve through them. I think Rivers provided me with a great foundation and an environment in which I could develop those skills.
A: My overall well-rounded nature, which I developed at Rivers, has served me well: being able to adapt, communicate well with others, play pick-up soccer anywhere in the world, multi-task, and analyze situations and problem-solve through them. I think Rivers provided me with a great foundation and an environment in which I could develop those skills.
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