Project Leadership Associates Receives Microsoft Azure Award for Ebola Research Project
Chicago, IL (PRWEB) April 22, 2015 -- Today, Project Leadership Associates (PLA) announced that it has received the Microsoft Azure Award for Ebola Research to support a leading-edge cloud computing project focused on stopping the deadly impact of this infectious disease. Funded through a grant by Microsoft, the project will focus on developing a better information infrastructure focused on reducing the spread of the Ebola virus and its associated factors.
PLA is partnering with the health care consulting firm of Grach, Plecko, Sinkoff, Jones, Wener, Bellamy LLC (GPSJWB) and negotiating with Patrick Lenihan, PhD, MUPP, an acknowledged leader in Public Health Policy and a faculty member of the University of Illinois’ School of Public Health. The solution that PLA, GPSJWB and Lenihan will work towards will utilize Microsoft’s function-rich Azure platform to capture data from disparate sources into a single data warehouse and share the actionable analytics with applicable parties throughout the world. Our solution will encompass Microsoft’s Azure AD, SQL, Azure Machine Learning, Office 365, SharePoint and PaaS technology to provide the end-to-end service.
In Bill Gates’ op ed in the March 18, 2015 New York Times, he stated that “The Ebola crisis was terrible, but next time could be much worse.” In commenting upon the need for a more effective response by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control, Mr. Gates said, “The problem isn’t so much that the system didn’t work well enough. The problem is that we hardly have any system at all.” This project attempts to fill that hole in the world’s ability to quickly and effectively identify and respond to potential future epidemics.
“Project Leadership Associates is eager to develop this idea into a solution for what could be a revolutionary new way to track infectious diseases,” said Rich Lilly, PLA’s Director of Sales Engineering, who is also leading the project. “We believe this platform could be the foundation to monitor and help control the spread of future infectious disease outbreaks and it all leverages Microsoft cloud solutions to help extend the reach and scale throughout the world.”
Mark Grach, GPSJWB’s managing member, has stated that “GPSJWB is committed to improving the quality of world-wide health care and is excited about the opportunity to collaborate with PLA and faculty from the University of Illinois, School of Public Health to develop and implement this valuable resource. Recent advances in today’s data management, communications and equipment technology, led by Microsoft’s suite of products, make attacking this problem more feasible than could be done with the technology available as recently as 5 years ago.”
According to the fact sheet released by the White House, “U.S. Response to the Ebola Epidemic in West Africa,” President Barack Obama has stated that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa is a top national security priority for the United States. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that the 2014 Ebola epidemic is now affecting multiple countries in West Africa.
To this end, while the project is primarily focused on converting disparate data into timely and actionable information about the Ebola virus, PLA hopes that this solution will provide a foundation for helping the world identify, treat and prevent other infectious diseases (such as the recent outbreaks of flu and measles) and can provide a global central platform for managing and consuming this data.
---
About Project Leadership Associates
Project Leadership Associates (PLA) is a business and technology consulting firm that specializes in IT strategy & execution, cloud solutions, system integration, software development, business intelligence, managed services and small business services. PLA helps clients improve business performance by providing strong technical subject matter expertise, accountability, a flexible approach, and collaboratively working with clients while remaining sensitive to budgets, corporate culture and project deadlines. PLA works hard to develop customer relationships built upon mutual respect, while emphasizing businesses and technical excellence in everything we do so each project delivers maximized value and return to the client.
For more information, visit http://www.projectleadership.net or call 312-441-0077.
About Grach, Plecko, Sinkoff, Jones, Wener, Bellamy LLC
Grach, Plecko, Sinkoff, Jones, Wener, Bellamy LLC (GPSJWB) provides system design and implementation, overall project management, risk management, HIPAA compliance, strategic and organizational planning and plan implementation services for small, medium and large health care and non-profit organizations. All of GPSJWB’s members have at least 30 years experience is serving health care and non-profit organizations. GPSJWB has successfully serviced its clients and built its strong reputation by working with its clients to establish meaningful and achievable goals and then collaboratively focusing the services directed towards achieving those goals. http://www.gpsjwb.com
About Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers and services. It’s best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, Microsoft Office suite, and Internet Explorer web browser. Its flagship hardware products are Xbox game console and the Microsoft Surface series of tablets. It is the world’s largest software maker measured by revenues. It is also one of the world’s most valuable companies. http://www.microsoft.com
###
Brittany Langmeyer, Project Leadership Associates, +1 (312) 258-5347, [email protected]
Share this article