Dailycsr.com – 25 April 2019 – On the Earth Day, the vice president for “sustainability programs” at Dell, David Lear wrote:
“Today is Earth Day, a day I typically take on the role of Chief Electric Bicyclist, generating power for our Earth Day celebrations at the Dell Technologies headquarters”.
 
According to Lear it not only is a means for exercise but also an opportunity for Dell to team up and clean the “local environments”. This year, the company made record of conducting a total of sixty events across the globe to celebrate the day. Furthermore, Dell also uses the day to evaluate its performances in regards to their sustainable agenda.
 
Dell Technology finds challenging itself to “apply circular design principles” in product and packaging designing as well as in other operations to be of “key focus”. This way, the company seeks to ensure that materials are “reused as long as possible”, whereby “maximizing their value and reducing waste”.
 
While, Lear added:
“We are making steady progress and, in some cases, exceeding our goals…

 
Lear terms the above mentioned achievements as “nice milestones” but he also reminds that to customers “environmental issues” are becoming increasingly urgent, therefore the company “cannot stand still”.
 
Additionally, Lear also shared some of the “new initiatives” pushing the boundary sustainable innovation and promoting circular economy:

 
At Dell, materials provide “constant innovation”, as repurposing and recycling through endless opportunities that present themselves, Dell seeks to reduce the burden on the earth’s natural resources. While, the Senior Vice-President at “Dell Commercial Client Product Group”,  Darrel Ward said:
“From tiny gold components to large plastic chassis, the sustainable materials portfolio we’ve built is a testament to our innovation. Pound by pound, we’ve not only shattered our goal—we’ve shown the industry what’s possible when you pursue circular approaches.”
 
In concluding notes, Lear stated:
“We all have a role to play to be good stewards for our planet, and we want to make it as easy as possible for you to recycle your used technology responsibly. We have redesigned our global recycling website, dell.com/recycle to make it easier than ever for customers to find the right solution to responsibly recycle their obsolete equipment. We encourage you to explore your options and empty your closets of old devices so we can put that material to good use for you. The planet thanks you”.
 
References:
3blmedia.com

Dailycsr.com – 04 December 2018 – There is a growing awareness in the customers who are taking more and more interest about the “social and environmental impact of the products they buy”. The “Global Corporate Sustainability Report” 2015 of Nielsen showed that 66% of the customers don’t mind spending extra for availing products as well as services that contribute towards “positive social and environmental impact”.
 
Dell often receives queries regarding their supply chain’s “social and environmental impact”. Customers inquire about the source of raw materials, the treatment of workers at work premise and how the earth gets affected by their operations.
 
Dell, however, obliges to these queries and discloses the information as their commitment, whereby abiding by one of their “2020 Legacy of Good goals” of 100% transparency on key issues regarding their supply chain as well as about the collaborated effort with the suppliers in mitigating the risks in the related areas.
 
Dell has made it their goal to conduct a hundred percent audit on “high-risk direct materials suppliers”, which is determined by “geographic location, business relationship, commodity and past audit performance”. Besides, the company is also to scrutinise and choose its service suppliers after profiling the suppliers of “logistics, call centers and packaging” along with other commodities. The audit thus mentioned will be carried out minimum every alternative year to ensure the maintenance of high standards of ethical behaviour in accordance to the “Responsible Business Alliance Code of Conduct”.
 
While, Dell further added:
“We also require key suppliers to publish a Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-based sustainability report, publicly report their carbon emissions and water use data, and submit a water risk mitigation plan. To give customers transparency into all of these areas, as well as others, such as responsible sourcing and protecting vulnerable workers, we publish a Supply Chain Sustainability Progress Report and a Responsible Minerals Sourcing Report”.
 
Event though, the above mentioned data form the backbone of transparent operations, Dell went beyond it to “do even more” in order to deepen “customers’ understanding of global supply chain conditions”. As a result, from the year of 2015, Dell reports, “we have hosted customers on annual, in-person tours of suppliers’ facilities, each time visiting a different city”.
 
However, in 2017, the tour was conducted in “Chengdu, China” for paying a visit to “Wistron and Compal”, two “original design manufacturers” of Dell. The entire trip experience has been filmed and as a “virtual reality tour” has been made available to anyone across the globe.
 
Talking about the filming process, Dell added:
“Filming the tour (as opposed to staging a video) was important to us. It was created as actual customers explored the facility’s manufacturing floor, recreation areas and dorms (Many workers come from other cities and countries for work.). We also captured the worker-engagement sessions in which customers directly asked workers about their living and working conditions. The virtual reality tour enables others to get a sense of what it’s like to work and live in a factory”.
 
References:
3blmedia.com

Dailycsr.com – 27 August 2018 – According to W.H.O, nearly “two-thirds” of the Indian population are found in the rural regions, whereby imposing challenges on the delivery of “preventive healthcare” to more than “800 million remote villagers”, while seems to be a gigantic task to also keep track of patient’s record without bringing in technology.
 
Around “200,000 auxiliary nurse midwives”, in short ANMs, serve at the front lines of India’s rural healthcare system, as they practically manage everything between diabetes and “childbirth assistance”. The primary support of these ANMs is “a paper-based system” used for “screening, referring and tracking patients”, which leaves room for errors, thus providing hindrance to care continuity.
 
When it comes to the increment of non-communicable diseases, in short NCDs, such as “cancer, diabetes and heart disease”, the Indian government initiated a mission which seeks “population-based prevention, screening and management” undertaken by health worker for detecting early common NCDs.
 
Furthermore, Dell informs that:
“The NCD program is a key component of comprehensive primary healthcare under Ayushman Bharat, a flagship national health initiative announced by the Government of India in early 2018. Dell worked with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as its technology partner, taking on the formidable challenge of building a technology solution that would help ANMs and doctors to screen and manage NCDs, while also helping the government to standardize and automate care and record keeping. The solution also needed to have the right dashboards to enable the policymakers to use data analytics to spot health trends and needs across the country”.
 
Digital LifeCare, a “modern digital healthcare solution”, was designed by Dell in 2014 as a pilot initiative. For this work, Dell had partnered with “Karuna Trust”, a non-profit, from the southern state of Karnataka. In 2016, Dell was involved with the government of state, Andhra Pradesh, wherein it customised and deployed Digital LifeCare. In fact, in 2017, the company also launched the same in “seven districts” of Telengana state.
 
Moreover, with Tata Trusts as its partner, Dell trained thousands of ANMs along with many doctors to use Digital LifeCare for detecting NCDs. Ever since the later part of 2017, Dell is collaborating with the “Ministry of Health and Family Welfare” in India to improve on Digital LifeCare to make it suitable for “India’s 29 states and seven union territories”.
 
While Dell added further:
“To achieve this ambitious goal, the Dell team is working with the Ministry and partner institutions including the World Health Organization, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Indian Council for Medical Research and National Health Systems Resource Center. The comprehensive feedback from the Ministry and experts is helping shape the design and development of a sophisticated application with referral options, reminders and workplans; protocol-based care at the primary level for assessing risk, screening, treatment and follow-up; and a unique health ID for every individual. This data, captured in an electronic health record, will enable a continuum of care over time across health facilities at all levels”.
 
The Prime Minister of India, himself launched the solution in the month of April 2018, and in an initial phase, the “Government health departments” throughout the country will be using this solution.
 
References:
3blmedia.com

Dell announced the extension of its partnership with Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) to assist doctors and researchers globally to help, the world’s first FDA approved medicine trial for pediatric cancer, expand its reach and impact. The renewed agreement includes an additional funding of $3 million from Dell to support continued collaboration with TGen and support the Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium’s (NMTRC) expanded pediatric cancer clinical trials in EMEA, starting with locales in Lebanon and France. Dell’s contribution towards TGen has crossed an estimated $15 million since 2011.

This $3 million worth grant will allow, TGen access to Dell’s technology, to use genomic sequencing to point of diagnosis, and also enable TGen to extend its research, past pediatric cancer and also focus on other rare medical conditions especially the ones affecting children.

Most hospitals lack the time or funding to research pediatric cancer treatments, and this is where TGen’s expertise comes to effect. With TGen aiming to reach more of a global target audience, data handling was proving troublesome in itself. It is then, that TGen developed collaboration with Dell, to help coordinate and store genomic sequence data. Next, TGen and Dell furthered their partnership and expanded their support to EMEA.

James Lowey, Vice President of Technology at TGen has said, “Time is of the essence in our line of work so we’re constantly undergoing vendor evaluations to try to find the right tool for the job. Dell understands what we’re trying to accomplish – not an easy claim in the world of quick-fire genome sequencing – and it has the partnerships and hardware to help us do it”.

TGen’s extended partnership with Dell would give it a chance to optimize high performance computing infrastructure to assist researchers to analyze and store massive amounts of genetic data in a fast and reliable manner. Till now, TGen has been capable of increasing the number of computational hours by 376% and reduce time taken to analyze a patient’s molecular data – a process that used to take ten days – to six hours. These changes will now be duplicated in EMEA, as the infrastructure responsibly handles the increased number of patients across the new sites.

Aongus Hegarty, the President of Dell EMEA has issued a statement saying, “We are proud to help TGen in EMEA gain the speed and efficiency it needs to ensure that more children can benefit from timely, local and effective treatment. Pediatric cancer is an issue that affects too many lives and we are committed to delivering benchmark solutions and support to ensure that the team at TGen is able to focus on this most important of work”.

About Dell
Dell Inc. is one of the world’s leading tech company focused on end-to-end IT solutions especially for healthcare worldwide. Dell helps healthcare firms to simplify administration, manage patient care, to deliver personalized medicine and transition from episodic care to wellness management. Dell has been working with TGen since 2011 to accelerate research on treatments for pediatric cancer. Learn more at http://www.dell.com/childrenscancercare  or follow @DellHealth on Twitter.

About TGen
Based in Phoenix, Arizona, Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a non-profit organization dedicated to groundbreaking research. TGen researchers and scientists work tirelessly to unravel genetic causes to rare and complex diseases in adults and children. TGen works in collaboration with medicinal and scientific communities worldwide to contribute extensively towards effectiveness and efficiency of the translational process.
Visit www.tgen.org for more information on the work that’s been done by TGen to improve health worldwide.
 
References:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150611005022/en#.VXzz3_mqqko