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Launching the PagerDuty.org Fund to Connect Remote Communities to Essential Medical Care

by Olivia Khalili October 8, 2019 | 5 min read

When it comes to impacting lives—around the world and in our own communities—it’s often about empowering the right group of people to take action when minutes matter. Whether it’s acting on predictive signals to move families to safety before Hurricane Dorian makes landfall or helping more than 100 people regain their eyesight every day, PagerDuty plays a critical role in empowering teams to take life-impacting actions in critical moments.

Empowering People to Solve Problems

At its core, PagerDuty.org exists to empower those working to make a difference in the world and to use our technology to solve intractable challenges.

When we took the Pledge 1% in September 2017, we committed one percent of product, employee working time, and company equity to accelerate the work of nonprofit partners like SightLife and mission-driven organizations that serve people around the world. We launched Impact Pricing last year to provide nonprofits with 10 free licenses, and have witnessed the power of technology to transform peoples’ lives across the nonprofits we work with.

Introducing the PagerDuty.org Fund

Today, we are excited to bring to life our equity commitment, with the launch of our philanthropic foundation, the PagerDuty.org Fund.

The Fund will focus on Time-Sensitive Global Health, with a vision of helping organizations bring essential medical care to people who need it, in the hardest-to-reach places, in the moments they need it most.

Each year millions of individuals die from preventable diseases and health complications because they lack access to healthcare in their community. Five million people die from injuries that go untreated, three million die from vaccine-preventable diseases—of which 1.5 million are children under the age of 5—and nearly 300,000 women die from addressable complications during childbirth.

Lives can be saved by quicker response times for health responders and improved visibility into indicators of the spread of infectious disease for health care organizations because it allows them to provide timely treatment and take preventative measures.

By orchestrating action in critical moments to save lives, PagerDuty can tackle a pivotal piece of the healthcare, from remote vaccine distribution to life-saving emergency care to early warning signs of outbreaks.

Time-Sensitive Global Health is a rapidly evolving area that opens up new ways to use evolving technologies like connected devices and drones, and new models of preventative care. We are investing our technology, our talent, and our funding to support more organizations like SightLife in two key ways.

First, we will help increase access to care for people in the most remote parts of the world by improving response time for community health workers and expanding geographic coverage with new service-delivery models.

To do this, we are partnering with Medic Mobile, a nonprofit organization working to improve healthcare in the hardest-to-reach communities through open-source software that enables equitable care for everyone. Medic Mobile considers everyone to be community health workers, and PagerDuty is proud to support the organization’s Community Health Toolkit software, used by rural health workers to track outbreaks and treat illnesses door-to-door.

“Reaching everyone on the planet with high-quality care, when and where they need it, will require redesigned health systems with care teams supported by world-class technology. I’m thrilled that PagerDuty is stepping up to contribute to this effort. The speed of care delivery is critical—our progress on speed may determine whether or not we meet overall goals for health equity,” shared Josh Nesbit, Medic Mobile CEO.

Second, we’re investing in innovative organizations pioneering new solutions to eliminate gaps in medical coverage. Examples of this include regional health hotlines to remote communities, IoT integrations to prolong vaccine viability, and connected devices that provide an early warning system for potential outbreaks.

We are helping to advance the leading work of VillageReach, which strives to transform health care delivery to reach the most under-reached. “To meet this audacious goal, we must build people-centered health systems which reach people where they are, with the products and services they need. We are proud to partner with PagerDuty.org for the advancement of rapid response technologies that can connect health systems to innovations that withstand unpredictable change,” shared Emily Bancroft, President of VillageReach.

PagerDuty Is for People

PagerDuty has always been for people. Our platform is used across sectors and geographies to solve problems, and as a company, we practice equitable employment and foster a deep culture of inclusivity and diversity.

In addition to focusing on Time-Sensitive Global Health, we will support our local communities. This means creating pathways to opportunity for candidates from diverse backgrounds who face systemic barriers—whether they’re returning military service members, under-skilled youths, highly skilled immigrants, or crisis survivors. We will continue to invest in established partners like Code2040 and Bridge, fund new partnerships that regenerate overlooked communities with Code Tenderloin, and build capacity for tech nonprofits with FastForward. The next phase of this work will enlist PagerDuty employees and deeply invested community partners in bringing forward opportunities they see for change and actively collaborating toward thoughtful and material impact.

At its heart, PagerDuty enables the right response at the right moment. The PagerDuty.org Fund accelerates our ability to respond to the needs of those living in communities around the world and close to home—from ensuring access to essential medical care for everyone who needs it, in the hardest to reach places, when they need it most, to furthering vibrant communities and creating economic access that drives equity and diversity in tech.