We all know that the U.S. spends far too much on healthcare.  17% of GDP?  Individual hospital bills for thousands of dollars?  But is any health system really perfect?  Is it actually possible to build a low-cost, high quality health system that serves everyone’s needs? 

In terms of the system level- well the jury’s still out on that one.  But if we look a little closer, really taking the magnifying glass to some broken models around the world, we see exciting forms of healthcare delivery bubbling up.  Ones that don’t require subsidy, serve patients in the way they deserve and use technology as a true efficiency.

We’re talking about shipping container clinics providing healthcare to truck drivers across rural Africa, profitable health loans offered to patients in India with no traditional collateral, efficient/low cost health worker and supply chain training to improve health outcomes drastically. 

Sound exciting?  We think so!

That’s why we’ve picked these organizations and a few more to join the 2014 cohort of entrepreneurs in the Social Enterprise Accelerator at Duke (SEAD)!  SEAD is a USAID- funded accelerator program run in partnership by IPIHD, Duke University and Investors’ Circle- to expand the reach of high impact healthcare organizations serving low-income populations in emerging markets.  Part of SEAD involves addressing individual organization challenges - tackling access to funding, corporate partnerships, etc.  But the really exciting piece of this is how it impacts the field.  SEAD entrepreneurs are able to help each other, cross-share what works in India with Kenya and meet with government policymakers to work collaboratively on country-wide health issues.  At SEAD, we believe it’s all about investing in what works, helping great ideas grow to scale and ultimately bringing innovative, effective models of healthcare delivery to thousands around the world.

Today we’re thrilled to announce this year’s cohort of SEAD entrepreneurs.  Talk about high impact- they’re truly the ones to watch.

2014 SEAD Cohort Innovators

Africa

LifeNet- Efficient Capacity Building for Local Health Clinics

Strengthens local healthcare capacity, by partnering with community health centers to build their medical and administrative capacity and connect them with necessary pharma/medical equipment.  Partner clinics have seen a 72% increase in quality of patient care.   

Northstar- Shipping Container Clinics for Transport Workers

Operates a network of converted shipping container clinics placed along Africa’s transport corridors currently serving over 215,000 people in 13 countries.  Partners with over 70 public, private and social organizations including Chevron, Heineken, UPS and others.

India

Arogya Finance- Health Loans for the Traditionally Unbankable

Provides health loans within 24 hours to patients, approving patients based on a proprietary behavioral test rather than formal system requirements like a bank account or collateral. 

Forus Health- Intelligent Medical Technology

Focused on “Democratizing Wellness,” Forus Health develops affordable technology solutions that can easily be used by a minimally trained technician, thereby making health service accessible and scalable.  Creator of 3nethra- an intelligent pre-screening ophthalmology device. 

SughaVazhvu- Evidence Based Blue Print for Primary Care

Offers low-cost primary healthcare services through an easy to follow blue print clinic system.  This includes a focus on evidence-based primary care, use of a proprietary health management information system, community engagement tactics and highly developed protocols to treat the most common 80+ illnesses.

Swasth India – Low Cost, Patient Centered, Primary Care Franchise

Driven by the motto “Health for all,” Swasth India operates a chain of primary care centers in slum areas with a model that provides a 50% reduction in out of pocket expenses to the patient.  Provides everything in a 150 square foot facility that offers access to a family doctor, rapid diagnostics on site, discounts on drugs, referrals with discounts, in patient day care services and electronic health records.

No one knows what the future holds, but we definitely know that health needs aren’t going away.  Let’s work together to help these exciting organizations spread their models across the world.  

We are working hard to bring together an exciting three days in healthcare innovations for the 2nd Annual SEAD Summit and Symposium!

The 2nd Annual SEAD Summit brings together leading healthcare innovators from around the world for an intensive three day accelerator focused on scaling proven healthcare solutions.  This year's Summit will take place at Duke University from April 2-4, 2014 in Durham, North Carolina.  All SEAD innovators are invited to send one participant to attend the full training which provides an opportunity to meet CEO's of leading healthcare innovations, work with leading professors from Duke's Fuqua School of Business and Duke Medicine, network with undergraduate and graduate students, participate in roundtables with USAID and other healthcare funders and showcase their innovations to the broader Raleigh-Durham community.  While the accelerator portion of the SEAD Summit is closed to SEAD innovators, the general public is invited to attend the SEAD Symposium taking place on Friday, April 4th.

Registration for the public SEAD Symposium will open by late February and be available on our website.

The Standard Group, a news media company in Kenya, is reporting on the work Changamka is doing on increasing access to healthcare in Kenya.  Safaricom has announced that they will be teaming up with Changamka and Britam to provide health insurance to an estimated 38 million Kenyans.  Currently 97% of Kenyans lack access to affordable health insurance options. 

The 2013 U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Higher Education Solutions Network (HESN) TechCon brought together eight university development labs across the world that are creating and accelerating groundbreaking solutions to some of the most challenging problems of international development. Leveraging vast networks of global research, these development labs address issues at every stage of innovation, including: scaling and accelerating business models, applying market strategies to cutting-edge technology, and geocoding to effectively allocate resources across continents. Each university’s development lab focuses on distinctive but highly interconnected concentrations. The TechCon brought together some vastly different methods of thinking. Attendees included MPH, Ph.D., MBA, and undergraduate students, staff from USAID, and staff from the respective labs. The panel discussions, networking lounge, innovation marketplace and lab showcases created a unique environment to share from experiences, reflect on accomplishments, and brainstorm ideas.

Student engagement was a key component in the success of the conference. The TechCon opened with an all-day Student Summit. As part of the summit, students had the chance to participate in a design lab workshop crafted jointly by UC Berkeley’s Development Impact Lab and the global design firm IDEO. Led by William and Mary senior Molly Adair, this thinking-workshop introduced the concept of human-centered design through “design thinking”, a process that helps envision new creative ways to serve individuals based on their needs and desires.

The design lab challenged attendees to create a prototype of the ideal cell phone. As Adair announced the assignment, this daunting task loomed large over the room of eager students. Designing the perfect cell phone is nearly impossible. What is feasible, however, would be designing an ideal phone for a certain individual. Students were paired with a partner and guided through a 10-step process of one-on-one interviews to discover exactly how their partner uses their current cellphone and what capabilities they would ideally want in a perfect phone. After the initial questioning, students were instructed to dig deeper and ask more personal questions. Through this method, my partner who had been a stranger to me 10 minutes prior, was able to dig up some very pertinent facts about me that helped him envision my perfect phone. A few years back, a close friend of my family’s was diagnosed with a brain tumor; he had also spent a good portion of his life with his cellphone attached to his right ear precisely in the location of the tumor, so some doctors suggested the possible correlation. When designing the prototype for my ideal cellphone, my partner made sure to focus on creating a special type of barrier that would block the radiowaves and electromagnetic radiation from the phone as I hold it up to my ear or place it in my lap.

Only through this unique method of trust-building and intimate questioning were we able to successfully create an ideal product. And that is the key part of human-centered research. Conducting this kind of interpersonal analysis is the most effective way to identify opportunities to serve individuals and improve quality of life.

Tackling problems of international development with a human-centered approach is truly invaluable. Designing innovative and high-impact technologies requires an outlook that is both interdisciplinary and individual-based. The example of the Odón Device, which I read about recently in the news, perfectly encapsulates the value of these viewpoints in issues of health and development. This new birthing device was invented by a man named Jorge Odón who had subconsciously made the connection from a video he had seen on extracting a cork from a wine bottle. Nobody could have imagined the impact of applying a cork trick to the labor and delivery setting. Medical professionals predict that the device will not only help save babies in poor countries, but also reduce cesarean section births in wealthy ones. The innovation has transformed from Barbie dolls and a fabric bag in Jorge Odón’s kitchen to a patented device that has won research grants from USAID and is now being safety-tested around the world.

It is incredible to see how Odon - a car mechanic who had only ever tinkered with automobile parts in his garage - could envision a disruptive innovation for an issue that could not be farther from his field of expertise. The key factor here, elucidated by the W.H.O.’s Chief Coordinator for Maternal and Perinatal health, was that this specific childbirth problem needed the viewpoint of someone detached from this field – someone with a refreshingly different perspective. Someone who tinkered with his daughter’s dolls and his wife’s sewing bag, and who was brave enough to wander into an obstetrician’s office and share his prototype while bouncing off more ideas. With encouragement from the doctor, Odón continued to pursue collaboration with medical professionals, improving his prototype along the way. Odón’s unique imagination, combined with his collaborative ambitions created an incredible innovation. The possibilities of human-centered design are truly unlimited, as I learned and witnessed attending the HESN TechCon.

This summary provided by SEAD Program Assistant Kyle Munn.

The Devex International Development Career Forum is one of the largest annual events for international development mid to senior-level professionals.  For one day, professionals are able to network, explore new job opportunities, and discuss trends in global development hiring.

On March 28th, Devex anticipates participation from more than 500 mid- to senior-level global development professionals and over 60 exhibiting organizations.  In order to attend, all interested individuals must apply through the Devex website.  Application criteria can be found on their website as well as application fees.

For more information, please visit the Devex Career Forum page at https://pages.devex.com/2014-dc-career-forum.html.

Last week, The Guardian's Social Enterprise Network shared a gallery of social enterprise stories from Kenya captured by Gobee Group, an organization innovating "at the intersection of technology and social impact." In July 2012, photographer Flynn Warren traveled to Nairobi seeking to document the most creative, innovative, and socially-minded organizations. The end product, a book titled "Social Enterprise Stories from Urban Kenya," is the first in what Gobee hopes will be a series. They seek to "tell the story of social entrepreneurship in action through multiple, interactive media, beyond photography and print, and beyond Kenya." One of these stories is SEAD Innovator Jacaranda Health.

Jacardanda Health works to provide quality, affordable health care in low-resource settings, ensuring that every Kenyan mother has access to the care they need for a safe and healthy delivery. Their innovative mobile services allow clients to prepay towards costs, and their clinics provide quality services at one-fifth the cost of other private hospitals.

 Says Gobee, "[we] sought the four most innovative, social-minded organizations across all sectors in Kenya and instead found the biggest game changers anywhere in the world."