Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI)

As of today (Monday, Feb. 13), the Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI) website has received more than 100,000 unique visitors. CHMI visitors have come from 204 countries (top countries include India, the Philippines and Kenya) and represent a wide range of stakeholders in global health, including program implementers, funders, researchers and policy makers.

Our goal is to be a one-stop shop for information on programs and policies that help the private sector to reach its full potential to deliver quality, affordable and accessible care to the poor in developing countries. We are especially excited by this landmark because the number of new and return users to CHMI indicates that CHMI is proving to be a valuable resource to those working in global health. Some of the key ways that visitors have used CHMI include:

• Browsing the CHMI database. The database currently contains informative profiles on more than 1000 innovative programs from over 100 countries. Easily isolate programs that are relevant to you using filters on health focus, country of operation, legal status and more!
• Contacting innovators. After login, you can click on “Contact this Program” link on any program profile.
• Adding a program to the CHMI database. Add your program to share your success with the Health Market Innovations community – including potential partners and funders. Search first to see if it’s already in our database!
• Getting invited to events. Get invited to online events with our global community or events in countries where our partners are based.
• Downloading our data. Search in Programs for an area of interest – for example, programs in Kenya – then click “Download” at the top right to download program data into a .csv file that opens in Excel.

A map showing various connections that were made through CHMI as of fall 2011.

We are always thrilled to learn how our users are utilizing CHMI and how we can better help them in their work. One recently-registered user, Melissa Menke, has found CHMI to be a valuable resource as she launches a new health initiative in Kenya. Melissa, who is finishing a Masters in Public Service at NYU Wagner in New York City, is currently starting an organization called Afya Salama, which plans to pilot a healthcare business model that increases access to care in low-income Kenyan neighborhoods using smart technology and community-based kiosks. She just returned from a field research trip to Nairobi, where she met with a wide range of health professionals, techies, entrepreneurs and academics.

According to Melissa (pictured left), “I joined the CHMI community after starting Afya Salama to learn more about similar models and expand on my network of organizations innovating to improve health systems. The site provides a useful framework for thinking about health innovations. I have already learned about programs doing related work in Kenya by regularly checking the CHMI site. It is also extremely valuable to be able to place my work within the trends and studies discussed by CHMI’s database. I am looking forward to using the connect feature to contact other organizations and hope that anyone interested in my work will contact me as well!”

While exploring the database, Melissa came across M-Afya Kiosks which shares many similarities with Afya Salama, including the fact that they are both Kenya-based and both utilizing kiosks and ICT. Given the synergies between their programs, Melissa contacted M-Afya Kiosks, set up a meeting while she was in Kenya, and has now been using them as a valued resources on implementing this type of program!

We at CHMI are excited that we can help Melissa become further connected in this space to help Afya Salama can grow successfully and we hope others will similarly share with us their stories about using CHMI and how we can continue to help them in their work.

CHMI also just broke 600 followers on Twitter! Make sure you follow us there and on Facebook.