34 results for “health” · grouped by type
practices
34Kenya Community Health Volunteer / Promoter (CHV/CHP) home-based care programmeiCow (Green Dreams Tech)Mobile phone-based farming platform designed for basic phones without internet, delivering agricultural and livestock knowledge via SMS, livestock management reminders, a virtual marketplace (Soko) and expert lookup. It was born out of an Apps4Africa hackathon and operates via Safaricom (*285#). Since ~2019-2022 the organization pivoted to regenerative agriculture and soil health under iCow Regen Academy; the original SMS/Soko product is largely historical.Shamba Shape Up (Mediae)Makeover-format television series (edutainment) produced by The Mediae Company that visits smallholder farms in Kenya and improves them on the spot with experts, demonstrating soil fertility, animal health, agronomy and climate adaptation practices. It airs on Citizen TV with an audience of millions of weekly viewers in East Africa.Piramal Sarvajal solar water ATMs (franchise safe drinking water)A social enterprise that installs water ATMs: solar-powered, cloud-connected purified water dispensing machines operated by a local entrepreneur under a franchise model. Users pay with a prepaid RFID card. An IoT device (Soochak) monitors quality, liters and machine health in real time. It operates hundreds of plants in rural and urban areas across several states.eCHIS Kenya (electronic Community Health Information System)National community health information system of Kenya's Ministry of Health: a smartphone app (based on Medic's open source Community Health Toolkit) with which more than 107,000 Community Health Promoters register households, manage cases and supplies, refer patients and exchange data with facilities' electronic records. Development since 2020, pilot in Kisumu in mid-2021, scale-up to all 47 counties by mid-2024, with more than 107,000 CHPs using the platform. Part of the presidential agenda to professionalize and pay CHPs.UNAL / HUN Digital telemedicine network (Centro de Telemedicina, Universidad Nacional de Colombia)Telemedicine program of the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, created in 2002 to bring specialized health services to remote regions (Amazonas, Vichada, Guaviare, Caquetá, Arauca, Putumayo, among others). It has served more than 30 health institutions and today operates through the Hospital Universitario Nacional (HUN Digital: teleconsultation, tele-expertise, TeleUCI Solidaria) and the program 'Conectando la salud a la región', which under Agreement 2129 of 2025 with MinSalud, UdeA and UniCartagena installs teleconsultation centers in remote municipalities such as Puerto Leguízamo (Putumayo), avoiding river journeys of 6-8 hours.eSanjeevaniIndia's national telemedicine service connecting patients and rural clinics to doctors and specialists.Khushi Baby / CHIP (Community Health Integrated Platform)Born in 2014 as a university project at Yale: a culturally adapted NFC pendant that stores the baby's vaccination history and is scanned at immunization camps. A cluster RCT in Udaipur (Vaccine 2018, 96 villages in 3 arms) evaluated the pendant + voice reminders against a control NFC sticker. It evolved into CHIP, a digital platform for community health workers adopted by the government of Rajasthan as technical partner, today with 85,000+ workers enabled in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka, including a Climate & Health Vulnerability Index (CHVI) developed with the Rajasthan Department of Health.World Health Partners Sky (social franchising + telemedicine, Bihar)World Health Partners' Sky program in Bihar (launched in November 2010 in 13 districts, ~43.4M population; funding of more than USD 23 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other donors). It created a network of health franchises (SkyCare/SkyHealth, up to ~10,663 health entrepreneurs) recruiting rural informal providers and connecting them via telemedicine with urban doctors, targeting childhood diarrhea and pneumonia. The independent evaluation (Duke/Stanford, with standardized patients) found null impact: Sky providers saw a minimal fraction of the target cases and did not improve knowledge or quality of treatment. The program won the Skoll Award 2013 before any evidence of results existed; the Sky program ended around June 2018.CASALUD / MIDO (Medición Integrada para la Detección Oportuna, Fundación Carlos Slim)Digital health model of the Fundación Carlos Slim for prevention, timely detection and control of noncommunicable diseases in public primary care. Its MIDO component screened 743,000 people in 137 health centers in 27 of the 32 states between 2014 and 2018 (BMJ Open 2021), was adapted during the pandemic (MIDO COVID) and evolved into MIDO Embarazo and MIDO Primera Infancia within the Primeros 1000 Días de Vida strategy (launched in El Mezquital, Durango, April 2025, with the state Secretariat of Health). In June 2026 the foundation's digital health ecosystem joined the national strategy against acute child malnutrition with the federal Secretariat of Health, IMSS, IMSS-Bienestar, ISSSTE and DIF in 130 priority municipalities.Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) in KenyaA rural sanitation methodology in which facilitators trigger communities to collectively analyze their open defecation practices and decide to build latrines by themselves, without hardware subsidy, until reaching Open Defecation Free (ODF) status. Piloted by Plan Kenya in 2007 and adopted by the Ministry of Health as a national strategy. Studies in Siaya and Migori document both coverage increases and a significant reversal of ODF status.BATx: electrification with second-life batteries and solar (Katanzama project)BATx, a Colombian company born in 2020 at Universidad EAFIT (Medellín), remanufactures lithium batteries retired from electric vehicles to give them a second life as solar energy storage. It has manufactured more than 1.000 batteries and avoided more than 750 tonnes of CO2 and 30 tonnes of waste. With support from Youth4Climate and allies such as Maslight Solar and Fundación Socya, it brings solar systems with storage to rural communities. In the Katanzama project (Arhuaco community of the Sierra Nevada, Youth4Climate Award 2023) it installed solar generation and storage for the health post, the community hall and the school. In April 2025, EPM announced a new investment in BATx.mMitra / Kilkari (ARMMAN, maternal and child mobile messaging)Free voice message service synchronized with the stage of pregnancy/child-rearing for low-income women, created by the NGO ARMMAN in Mumbai (mMitra, 2014). A pseudo-randomized trial (BMC Public Health 2020, Murthy et al.) showed improvements in maternal self-care knowledge and practices. The model scaled as Kilkari, implemented with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare: the world's largest mobile maternal messaging program, expanding to all states and territories of India by 2026, and integrated into the national JANANI platform (launched by the Government of India in May 2026). It uses AI (restless multi-armed bandits, the SAHELI project with Google Research and Harvard) to prioritize retention calls.Compañeros En Salud (acompañantes and rural primary care in the Sierra Madre de Chiapas)Mexican affiliate of Partners In Health operating since 2011 in the Sierra Madre and Frailesca regions of Chiapas: 10 rural clinics, two maternal homes and the community hospital of Ángel Albino Corzo. Its core is the acompañantes program, about 100 community health workers (98% women) who visit patients with chronic diseases, mental health and maternal health needs in their communities, plus programs for medical interns, surgical care and the right to health. It validated the PHQ-9 and PHQ-2 depression screenings in rural Chiapas and uses them routinely.Patsari stove: improved wood-burning cookstoves (GIRA)Innovation and social appropriation of technology program that developed, disseminated and evaluated the Patsari stove, an improved wood-burning stove with a chimney that reduces firewood consumption (~50%) and vents smoke out of the home (~70% less indoor air pollution). Born in the P'urhépecha region of Michoacán, it spread to other states through programs linked to the carbon market. It has a health impact evaluation through a randomized controlled trial.Aprende.org (Fundación Carlos Slim)Open and free platform of the Fundación Carlos Slim launched on June 15, 2016. It integrates education, culture, job training (Capacitate para el Empleo, PruebaT, Khan Academy in Spanish) and health, with its own content and content from MIT OCW, edX, Coursera, Udacity and UNAM. Browsing at no data cost on Telcel networks. As of 2026 it reports tens of millions of cumulative beneficiaries (Capacitate para el Empleo alone reports 424 courses and over 13 million students), with use in Mexico and other Latin American countries.Salud a su Casa / Territorios Saludables (community primary health care in Bogotá)Primary health care strategy of Bogotá's district government: territorial teams (doctors, nurses, public health technicians and community health workers) that visited, house by house, families in areas of high social fragility. It was born in 2004 as 'Salud a su Casa' and was expanded in 2012-2016 as 'Territorios Saludables' (1,000-1,005 microterritories of ~800 families, ~8,000 workers, reported coverage of 2.9-3.7 million people). Published ecological evaluations associate the strategy with reductions in infant mortality and in child health inequalities across localities. It was dismantled starting January 31, 2016 by the Peñalosa administration, which cited high cost, a weak information system and results that could not be demonstrated.PROMPTS (Jacaranda Health)Digital health platform via SMS (in English and Swahili) for pregnant and postpartum mothers in public hospitals in Kenya: informational messages, appointment reminders and a two-way clinical helpdesk with AI-assisted triage (86% of responses automated, escalation to clinical agents 24/7). More than 750,000 women enrolled at the start of the RCT (Nov 2021) and more than 2 million additional afterwards; it operates with 22 county governments in Kenya. In Kenya it has reached more than 3.8 million mothers (more than 700,000 in 2025). Expansion to Nigeria (Kano State) in March 2026 via a partnership with eHealth Africa (adaptation to Hausa, target of 25,000 mothers in the initial phase); also prior presence in other African countries.Welzijn op Recept (wellbeing on prescription)The Dutch form of social prescribing: the general practitioner refers patients with psychosocial complaints (loneliness, stress, grief) to a community wellbeing coach instead of prescribing medication or medical care. Pilot started in December 2011 at the De Roerdomp health center (Nieuwegein) with the welfare organization MOvactor and the Trimbos-instituut. Today it operates in more than 175 municipalities, coordinated by the Landelijk Kennisnetwerk Welzijn op Recept, with a national monitor and anchoring in the Integraal Zorgakkoord. In 2025-2026 it is expanding with structural funding (7.6 million euros/year) in Groningen and Noord-Drenthe via the Nij Begun social agenda.CoronaMelderNational COVID-19 exposure notification app of the Dutch Ministry of Health (VWS), launched nationwide on October 10, 2020 as a digital complement to contact tracing by the GGDs. Built on the Google/Apple exposure notification framework with a privacy-by-design approach and its own temporary legal basis. It was continuously evaluated by an independent consortium led by Wolfgang Ebbers (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam). It was put on pause on April 22, 2022 and minister Ernst Kuipers withdrew it definitively in September 2022 by not extending the enabling law (Tijdelijke wet notificatieapplicatie covid-19, in force until October 10, 2022).DIADA project: integrated detection and care for depression and alcohol use in primary careTechnology-supported care model to integrate mental health into Colombian primary care, developed by the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana with the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and funded by the NIMH (award 1U19MH109988). It combines electronic screening kiosks in waiting rooms with clinical decision support tools on tablets so that general practitioners can detect and treat depression and risky alcohol use. It was implemented between February 2018 and March 2020 at six sites: Bogotá, Santa Rosa de Viterbo and Duitama (Boyacá), Guasca and Soacha (Cundinamarca) and Armero-Guayabal (Tolima), including rural primary-level centers.M-TIBA (CarePay / PharmAccess)Mobile health wallet and health financing platform built on M-PESA: it allows people to save, borrow and receive earmarked subsidies for spending exclusively within a national network of health providers, connecting patients, providers and payers in near real time. Launched by CarePay with Safaricom, PharmAccess and UAP (M-TIBA started as a brand in Kenya around 2015; public launch with Safaricom in December 2016). More than 4.8 million users; universal health coverage (UHC) pilot in Kisumu 2018-2019 with 273,350 households enrolled. Since 2024-2025 it incorporates AI for claims review.Comprehensive Health Care Model (MIAS) Guainía pilot: intercultural health for dispersed territoriesFirst national pilot of the MIAS (2016-2023), designed by the Ministry of Health with support from the IDB for the department of Guainía (Amazon region, ~41,000-50,000 inhabitants, 85% indigenous, 0.54 inhabitants/km2). A single insurer (Coosalud EPS, Decree 2561 of 2014) and the Manuel Elkin Patarroyo Hospital in Inírida operated an intercultural primary care model: health posts staffed with indigenous personnel, integration of traditional healers and midwives, river-based outreach teams and expanded insurance coverage. Evaluations record improvements in morbidity and mortality, coverage and access to specialists, along with persistent gaps (payment to traditional knowledge holders never resolved, river logistics for medicines, telemedicine limited by connectivity). Coosalud withdrew on October 31, 2023 and Nueva EPS took over the population on November 1, 2023, closing the pilot cycle as designed.Pro Mujer México (Pro Mujer by Avanza / Avanza Sólido): microfinance with health and trainingSocial enterprise with more than 30 years in Latin America that integrates microcredit, preventive health, financial education and microinsurance for low-income women entrepreneurs. In Mexico it operates as 'Pro Mujer by Avanza' (~22 branches, 165 municipalities). Since Oct 2024 it strengthened its alliance with Avanza Sólido, and in Jun 2025 it transferred its credit operations in Mexico to Avanza Sólido, leaving the joint brand 'Avanza Sólido - Pro Mujer' for credit, while Pro Mujer continues with health, training and consulting. 90% of its clients are women.Bive (Fundación Vive con Bienestar): low-cost membership for rural health accessSocial enterprise founded in 2012 in Manizales (Coffee Axis) that connects rural and low-income families with a network of 250-400 private health providers through a low-cost annual membership: discounts of up to 50-70% and faster care compared with the 2-3 months of the traditional system. Since 2015 it has worked with coffee cooperatives and reports more than 32,000 users (90% from rural communities) and 150,000 beneficiaries of social health projects (cervical cancer and HPV screening, training of youth health leaders, community telepharmacy and the Bive Previene program with a georeferenced platform for vector-borne diseases). Ongoing programs with coffee grower cooperatives (e.g. 'Mujer Bive tu salud' with the Cooperativa de Caficultores de Aguadas).Mobile Vaani (Gram Vaani): voice-based community media networkVoice- and IVR-based community media platform that works without internet or a smartphone: users place a missed call and the server calls back; with the keypad they navigate, record and listen to voice messages. Created by Gram Vaani (founders from IIT Delhi), it gives voice to rural communities on health, labor rights, governance, agriculture and child development, with human moderation. It has served more than 3 million users in 25+ districts and 8 languages.Map KiberaParticipatory community mapping initiative that turned Kibera (one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi) from a blank space on OpenStreetMap into a detailed, open digital map. Young residents were trained to collect geospatial data with GPS and mobile phones, edit it in OSM and produce information on schools, water, sanitation, safety, street lighting and health. It includes Voice of Kibera (SMS/Ushahidi reports) and Kibera News Network (citizen video).Lwala Community Alliance (community-led community health model)Organization founded in 2007 by brothers Milton and Fred Ochieng', natives of the village of Lwala (Migori County), after losing their parents to AIDS. Community-led health model: professionalized and paid community health workers (including retrained traditional birth attendants), community committees, a rural hospital and health policy reform alongside the Ministry of Health. It has scaled to three counties (Migori, Homa Bay, Baringo), going from 600,000 people reached in 2023 to 2.8 million in 2024, with more than 8,300 CHWs supported and skilled birth attendance rates above 90% in its intervention areas.Seguro Popular (Sistema de Protección Social en Salud)Systemic health-financing innovation created by law in 2003 under health secretary Julio Frenk, which extended public insurance to the population without social security: more than 53 million people enrolled in its first decade, with coverage declared universal in 2012. It financed explicit packages of services and a fund for catastrophic-cost illnesses. It was extensively evaluated (including a randomized evaluation published in The Lancet) and cancelled by the federal government: it closed in January 2020 and was replaced by INSABI, which in turn disappeared in 2023.Thuisarts.nlPublic evidence-based health information website launched in March 2012 by the Dutch college of general practitioners (NHG). It translates clinical guidelines into plain language from the patient's perspective (more than 500 topics, ~1100 situations, 180 videos). Today it is a consortium of NHG, Federatie Medisch Specialisten and Patiëntenfederatie Nederland, with ~80 million visits a year, nonprofit and without pharmaceutical industry involvement. An interrupted time series study (912,000 patients) measured a 12% drop in primary care use two years after launch.SEWA: data and digital platforms of informal women workersSEWA (Self Employed Women's Association), a union of ~2.5-3 million informal sector women workers founded by Ela Bhatt in Ahmedabad, Gujarat (1972), built its own data layer and digital tools by and for its members. It digitized its membership ('Vadlo online'): 2,000+ grassroots women leaders collect and renew data on ~2.5 million workers per year. Its members co-designed apps for membership, savings and credit, women farmers' livelihoods and health data, with digital and financial literacy training (100,000+ members trained in Gujarat in 2022).ChildCount+ in Sauri (Millennium Villages Project)SMS-based mHealth tool (built on RapidSMS, open source, GPL license) piloted since 2009 in Sauri, Siaya County, within the Earth Institute's (Columbia) Millennium Villages Project: community health workers registered by text the status of every child under 5 and pregnant woman (CMAM malnutrition, malaria, immunization, pregnancy monitoring and antenatal appointments), with automatic alerts and reminders. Handsets provided by Sony Ericsson (2009) and a toll-free number with Airtel Kenya. It ended with the closure of the MVP in 2015; the village was not prepared to sustain operations independently.Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) - access to LPG for clean cookingPMUY is a flagship program of the government of India launched in 2016 by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to provide access to LPG as a clean cooking fuel for marginalized households, delivering subsidized connections in the name of women from below-poverty-line families. It seeks to reduce indoor air pollution from solid fuels. Evaluations report improvements in health and women's empowerment, but also barriers: sustained LPG use is limited to brief cooking and the cost of refills restricts continuous use.Home-Based Newborn Care (SEARCH Gadchiroli)Home-based newborn care model created by SEARCH in the tribal district of Gadchiroli, Maharashtra. Trained community health workers (arogyadoots) make home visits to care for the newborn, manage neonatal sepsis and educate mothers. The field trial published in The Lancet (Bang et al. 1999) covered 1993-1998 and showed a ~62% reduction in neonatal mortality; the ten-year follow-up (1993-2003) confirmed the effect. The Government of India adopted it as the basis of the national HBNC program (2011) and WHO/UNICEF took it to other low- and middle-income countries.