Digital health innovation with refugees. A founder's story.
As underserved communities go, refugees are up there as the most vulnerable.
We already have systemic and deep challenges for physical health services not being designed for displaced people, and has we rush to bolt on digital and LLMs to everything, are we stopping and thinking about the key needs of these communities?
And a word on innovation in humanitarian settings. This is not a problem that investors go for with attractive returns, or something you can meet the market where it is at. Rather, its down to governments and philanthropy to help invest in this. Aral recounts the massive challenge HERA have had to overcome after USAID funding was cut and how he has navigated and needed to prioiritize after the stop work order.
Aral is the founder of HERA Digital health. HERA have built a tool that serves Syrian refugees in Turkey - targeted initially at mothers to be and mothers with young children, who, in the mess of trying to rebuild any semblance of routine in refugee camps would miss key antenatal or child development appointments. Aral saw the problems the community were having, and as a doctor in the ER in Turkey saw the downstream effects of this.
Some key takeaways for me:
- In humanitarian settings, context is not static and always changing.
- HERA hired developers who were in the refugee camps - short feedback loops and people immersed in the context. This is a great example of 'Build with, not for"
- The communities he is serving do not get to quit, why should he
- Defining what success is in this context - it is not about HERA surviving, or Aral being successful, but the work, and the impact to those people. So he is optimizing decisions for that - and this means he can be open to other options.
This episode is not a shiny rainbow story, but one about real struggle. Aral is still on the path of struggle and working to navigate through. If you care about what he is doing, seriously, get in touch with him.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Digital Health Innovations
05:05 The Journey of Aral Surmeli: From Medicine to Tech
07:47 Understanding Refugee Health Needs
10:13 Building HERA: The Digital Health Tool
18:23 Cultural Sensitivity in Health Solutions
28:01 Navigating Challenges in Humanitarian Innovation
30:50 Funding Dilemmas in Humanitarian Contexts
36:01 Adapting Strategies for Sustainability
44:03 The Role of Digital Identity in Healthcare
46:51 Finding Hope Amidst Challenges
48:50 Advice for Aspiring Humanitarian Innovators
About Aral:
https://heradigitalhealth.org/
Dr. Aral Surmeli is the Founder and CEO of HERA Digital Health, a nonprofit organization that helps refugee women and children access local healthcare through AI-powered digital tools. With a strong foundation in humanitarian health and digital innovation, Dr. Surmeli has led HERA to serve over 300,000 users, providing services like immunization reminders, prenatal care tracking, and digital health records—accessible even in low-connectivity settings via WhatsApp and offline apps.
HERA began its work in Turkey with Syrian refugees and is now expanding across the Middle East and Africa. The platform is open source, co-designed with local healthcare workers and refugee communities, and integrates with national health systems and NGO services.
Dr. Surmeli holds an MPH from Harvard University and is currently pursuing a DrPH at Johns Hopkins University. He is a former Innovation Fellow at Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and has been supported by organizations such as Google.org, Grand Challenges Canada, MIT Solve, and Harvard iLab. HERA was recently a finalist at the AI for Good Summit's Impact Awards, and Dr. Surmeli is an active voice on the intersection of AI, digital health, and humanitarian response
