Non-profit

The Commons Project

Website:

thecommonsproject.org

Location:

New York, NY

Formation:

2020

Type:

Non-Governmental Organization

CEO:

Paul Meyer

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The Commons Project is a nonprofit public trust based in the United States and Switzerland, focused on developing digital applications to easily share personal healthcare information, particularly with governmental agencies and corporations. Its two main projects as of April 2021 are CommonPass, a digital “vaccine passport” platform intended to allow individuals to document and verify their health status in relation to COVID-19 when interacting with airlines, airports, and other stakeholders in the travel industry, and CommonHealth, a digital platform intended to allow individuals to store and share their healthcare information more generally.

Background

The Commons Project was founded in July 2020 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public trust with a grant of $500,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation, a philanthropic foundation notable for providing major support to left-of-center organizations and projects. The Project has offices in New York City and Geneva, Switzerland. Its two main projects are CommonPass and CommonHealth. 123

CommonPass

CommonPass is a project of the Commons Project that aims at developing a smartphone-accessible “vaccine passport” for international travelers to easily verify their health status in relation to COVID-19, which will include information such as vaccination status and lab-test results, when interacting with government agencies and corporate stakeholders in the travel industry, particularly airports and airlines. Additionally, the platform will assess whether an individual’s records come from a “trusted source” and meet a given country’s screening requirements, displaying either a “yes” or a “no” as to whether a traveler can enter a country. According to the Project’s website, the platform is “in trials.” 4

To help promote and facilitate the use of CommonPass internationally, the Project is working in cooperation with the World Economic Forum, a Swiss non-governmental organization notable for hosting annual meetings in Davos, Switzerland and promoting environmentalist goals, notably publishing and later retracting a controversial video praising COVID lockdowns for improving cities around the world. 56

CommonHealth

CommonHealth is a project of the Commons Project that intends to develop a digital, smartphone-friendly platform to allow patients to store and share a wide range of healthcare information with health service providers, corporations, and digital applications on a voluntary basis. Organizations collaborating with the Project on CommonHealth include CARIN (Computer-Aided Research in Nursing); Cornell Tech; the University of California, San Francisco; Open mHealth, a group focused on developing shared standards for healthcare data; the Rockefeller Foundation, and Sage Bionetworks, a nonprofit focused on developing practices that make the collection and communication of healthcare data more reliable. 789

People

Paul Meyer, Co-Founder and CEO

Paul Meyer is a co-founder and CEO of the Commons Project. Meyer started his career doing advance work for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. Afterwards, Meyer joined the Clinton White House staff as a speechwriter. Next, he became CEO of Endeavor, an international non-profit focused on entrepreneurs and joined the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian-oriented non-governmental organization. Following the end of the Kosovo war in June 1999, Meyer co-founded IPKO, a wireless Internet provider, which mainly serviced the United Nations and other non-governmental groups in Kosovo, but later became the country’s main telecom, internet, and cable TV company. In 2001, he co-founded and became the CEO of Voxiva, an international mobile health services firm. In 2010, while at Voxiva, Meyer developed Text4baby, a health information service catering to pregnant woman and new mothers. In 2016, Meyer merged Voxiva with Sense Health, forming Wellpass, which in 2018, was acquired by Welltok. 10

J.P. Pollak, Co-founder & Chief Architect

J.P. Pollak is a co-founder and chief architect of the Commons Project. He is also the co-founder of Wellcoin, a digital rewards platform encouraging health-oriented living, a senior researcher in residence at Cornell Tech, and visiting fellow at Weill Cornell Medical College. 11

Brad Perkins, Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer

Brad Perkins is a co-founder and chief medical officer of the Commons Project. From 2003 to 2009, Perkins was the chief strategy and innovation officer at the United States Centers for Disease Control. Additionally, Perkins worked in private healthcare, including as co-founder and CEO of Sapiens Data Science, Chief Medical Officer of Human Longevity, Inc, as well as EVP for strategy and innovation and chief transformation officer at Vanguard Health Systems. 12

References

  1. “About us.” The Commons Project. Accessed April 22, 2021. https://thecommonsproject.org/about
  2. “The Commons Project Foundation.” Rockefeller Foundation. July 1, 2020. Accessed April 22, 2021. https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/grant/grant-the-commons-project-foundation-2020/
  3. “ The Commons Project Establishes Global Board of Trustees.” Business Wire. July 8, 2020. April 22, 2021.  https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200708005316/en/The-Commons-Project-Establishes-Global-Board-of-Trustees
  4. “CommonPass.” The Commons Project. Accessed April 22, 2021. https://thecommonsproject.org/commonpass
  5. MacPherson, James. “The World Economic Forum: ‘Lockdowns Are Improving Cities around the World’.” The Spectator Australia, February 28, 2021. https://spectator.com.au/2021/02/the-world-economic-forum-lockdowns-are-improving-cities-around-the-world/.
  6. “CommonPass.” The Commons Project. Accessed April 22, 2021.https://thecommonsproject.org/commonpass
  7. “Introducing CommonHealth.” CommonHealth. Accessed April 22, 2021. https://www.commonhealth.org/
  8. “About Us.” Sage Bionetworks. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://sagebionetworks.org/who-we-are/
  9. “About: Vision.” Open mHealth. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://www.openmhealth.org/organization/about/
  10. “Paul Meyer.” Blue Star Families. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://bluestarfam.org/team/paul-meyer/
  11. “JP Pollak.” Cornell Tech. Accessed April 23, 2021. https://tech.cornell.edu/people/jp-pollak/
  12. “Brad Perkins (MD).” HLTH. Accessed April 25, 2021. http://www.hlth.com/event/speakers/brad-perkins-md
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The Commons Project


New York, NY