"This future isn't being created just in Hollywood or Silicon in Valley; Indian entrepreneurs too are leading the charge. 

Forus Health, for example, has built 3nethra—an inexpensive device for the early detection of common eye ailments. Sofomo Embedded Solutions markets Lifeplot—a 12-Lead mobile electrocardiogram (ECG). Agatsa is developing Sanket—a pocket-sized ECG with a display which does not require any leads or wires. "

Forus Health was recently featured in an article about the use of information technology in healthcare innovations in The Economic Times (India).

Read the full article here.

“What are your numbers?” was the first question from a young, affable entrepreneur to a slightly younger, non-American physician at the breakfast table one morning at the SEAD Conference. It’s a question definitely important in the context of innovative health care, but perhaps not the greeting the physician expected.

This brought to my mind the difficulty I have seen in communication between physicians and their MBA counterparts. In a medical setting, emphasizing patient numbers without emphasis on quality of care can be a disaster. Physicians, at least in many parts of the world, do not speak MBA jargon such as “lean processes,” “right skilling” and “scalable.”

Dr. Philip McKinley, ophthalmologist with Duke Eye Center and SEAD mentor, was featured on the NextBillion.net blog this week. His piece discusses how to bridge the gap in communication between physicians and entrepreneurs when working together on social ventures.

NextBillion.net aims to connect business leaders, social entrepreneurs, NGOs, policy makers, and academic interested in the connection between development and enterprise.

Read the full blog post here. 

The Pratt Pouch has been featured in an article by the New York Times highlighting USAID's shift to collaborate with business and technology to meet the agency's goals.

"Many of Dr. Shah’s changes have been inspired by the approach of Gates. In 2011, U.S.A.I.D. began a program, Grand Challenges for Development, which invites innovators to submit ideas to help solve problems like H.I.V or hunger. The agency has financed nearly 100 products under the program, among them the Pratt Pouch, a ketchup-sized packet of anti-AIDS drugs that does not need refrigeration. The pouch, developed by students and faculty at Duke University, is being used in Zambia and Ecuador and could potentially prevent the transmission of H.I.V. to 400,000 babies a year, according to the agency."

Read the full article here.

Read the news release and meet the awardees here!

Nicholas Sowden, founder of Penda Health, was recently quoted in an article about impact investing and how it is key in growing industry in Kenya.  Check out the article published by The Standard Group here.

Ecopreneurist recently did a great write-up on the WE CARE Solar is doing with their portable solar power suitcases.

"Stachel’s husband, a solar energy educator, built a prototype of a portable solar electric system designed specifically for maternity wards, labor rooms, operating rooms, and labs. This portable solar power system fit into a suitcase-sized enclosure, and when Stachel brought it with her to a Nigerian hospital, to be used to charge LED lights, headlamps, and walkie-talkies, the healthcare workers immediately saw the importance of having such a system, especially in outlying medical clinics."

Check out the entire article on their website.

"DURHAM, NC - Maya Ajmera, who founded the non-profit Global Fund for Children while a graduate student at Duke, has been appointed the university's first social entrepreneur in residence.

Ajmera will engage with all levels of the Duke community in social entrepreneurship and help create a learning environment that inspires and prepares future social entrepreneurs who can turn knowledge into action. The appointment, by Duke's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative, is effective for 2014.

...

Ajmera founded and spent 18 years presiding over the Global Fund for Children (GFC), a non-profit organization that invests in innovative, community-based organizations working with some of the world's most vulnerable children and youth. GFC has awarded more than $30 million in capital to nearly 500 grassroots organizations in 78 countries, touching the lives of more than 9 million children."

Read more about this exciting appointment at Duke Today.

Photo credits: Standard Digital and Safaricom Kenya

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. 

Photo credits: Flynn Warren/Gobee Group

This summary provided by SEAD Student Assistant Lizzy Knippler, Duke '16.

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."

This summary provided by SEAD Student Assistant Lizzy Knippler, Duke '16.

When disaster struck Haiti in 2010, Dr. Sandeep Kohli says the Internet was not necessary to provide medical care following the earthquake. According to Dr. Kohli, who works in internal medicine and critical care, the most advanced piece of technology at the Port Au Prince hospital where he worked was a self-made EKG machine constructed of old machine parts. But three years later, things have changed. The hospital now uses an iPhone-powered iEKG, a product created by Dr. Kohli's medical device startup, Triomi Medical innovations. Dr. Kohli now sees the Internet as a way to save lives in Haiti.

Dr. Kohli has teamed up with Tingh Shih, the founder and CEO of Click Medix. Click Medix, part of the 2013 SEAD Innovator Cohort, is a mobile diagnostic company.  The partnership "integrate[s] the EKG machine with Click Medix diagnostic equipment to provide over-the-phone consultations to residents of remote villages with no nearby health clinics.

Click Medix technology is used to help community technicians in India, Ghana, and 11 other countries reach diagnoses for a variety of medical issues, including cancer, diabetes, and eye examinations. Dr. Kohli hopes to introduce a prototype of the new Click Medix cardiology program in the Port Au Prince hospital when it is ready in February. The diagnostic programs have "transformed 16-year-old dropouts in India into medical professionals able to work in the nation's top hospitals," and Dr. Kohli is optimistic that similar breakthroughs can occur in Haiti.