This TED Talk features surgeon and entrepreneur Nadine Hachach Haram, recorded live at TED Women 2017.

According to the theories of human social development, we're now living through the fourth

great epoch of technological advancement, the information age. Connectivity through digital technology is a modern miracle.

We can say it has broken down barriers of time and space

which separate people, and it's created a condition

for an age where information and ideas can be shared freely.

But are these great accomplishments in digital technology really the endgame in terms of what can be achieved?

I don't think so.

And today I'd like to share with you how I believe digital technology can take us to even greater heights.

I'm a surgeon by profession, and as I stand here today talking to all of you,

five billion people around the world lack access to safe surgical care.

Five billion people.

That's 70 percent of the world's population,

who, according to the WHO's Lancet Commission,

can't even access simple surgical procedures

as in when they need them.

Let's zoom in on Sierra Leone, a country of six million people,

where a recent study showed that there are only 10 qualified surgeons.

That's one surgeon for every 600,000 people.

The numbers are staggering.

And we don't even need to look that far.

If we look around us here in the US,

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