1) Medical products, vaccines, and technologies
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Need for low-cost, rugged, portable health diagnostics for use in resource-limited areas by non-specialist personnel
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General Electric’s MACi EKG machine [9], developed in partnership with Indian leaders at GE for rural health clinics in India
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Price point = $550 USD, >10 times less than standard EKG machines. Additional features: lightweight, durable, minimalist easy-to-use interface.
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Viewed as a commercial success by GE leadership (No publically-available data on number of units sold)
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Success in India prompted GE to develop MAC 600 and MAC 800, adaptations of the simple EKG machine for value-oriented US consumers
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The slightly more sophisticated version was sold to primary care clinics around the US (no publically-available data on number of units sold)
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2) Health information
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Need for gathering and sharing real-time information to map the impact and response to natural and man-made disasters
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Ushahidi [10], developed in the aftermath of the 2008 Kenyan presidential election as a way to map eyewitness reports of violence
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Uses crowdsourcing to gather critical and timely information from smartphones and map them in a central database
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>50 projects in LIC countries ranging from mapping Zimbabweans’ opinions on door-to-door HIV testing to finding victims of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake
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Recognition that crowdsourcing approach could be readily applied in HICs
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US and Europe examples include: used in New Orleans to report health hazards and chemical spillages during hurricanes; used to promote situational awareness during the 2012 London Olympics
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3) Service delivery |
Need to provide close-to-client services and address underlying social determinants of health in resource-limited areas |
Partners In Health (PIH) [11] community health worker (CHW) and wraparound service delivery model, first applied to HIV patients in rural Haiti |
CHWs visit patients at home, help overcome barriers to care, and provide psychosocial support. Food, transport, and housing support directly address root causes of disease. |
Used by PIH in range of LICs and adopted by many others. Likely has passed tipping point, i.e., 2012 multinational campaign to train and recruit one million CHWs in Africa [12]. |
Adapted to poor urban US populations by innovative PIH team, as the Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment (PACT) program [13]. |
Among HIV-positive patients in Boston, PACT reduced inpatient hospital stays by 35% and decreased hospital costs by nearly 50% [13]. PACT’s success influenced similar models by other US innovators, including Iora Health [14] and Transitions Clinic [15]. |