Weekly News Roundup
News, Events and Observations about Health Markets in the Developing World
Program News
This week, CHMI published eight case studies on programs that are using ICTs to bring efficiency to healthcare in countries around the world. For more information and a full list of published case studies, click here!
Freedom from Hunger, CHMI’s partner in the Andean Region of Latin America, was recently profiled in a Huffington Post blog entry for its work providing essential healthcare services to its microloan clients. Read more here.
E Health Point and 108 Emergency Response Services both recently won the NASSCOM Social Innovation Honours (NSIH), an “annual award that recognizes innovation in the use of ICT for social transformation and showcases projects that demonstrate best practices in this context”. Congratulations to both organizations on this honor! Read more here.
General News
USAID recently announced that “hospitals in Uganda are now accepting mobile money to pay for health expenses”. This is an exciting development, since CHMI has reported on new mobile money initiatives such as Changamka in Kenya, M-PESA in Tanzania, and PhilHealth in the Philippines.
Young Maasai men in Kenya are taking on healthcare responsibilities traditionally shouldered by women in an effort to provide healthcare to mothers and children who otherwise might not have access to care. The Africa Medical Research Foundation (Amref) “trained the young men on basic medical skills including patient consultations, recording patient history, diagnosing basic medical conditions, prescribing medication, and dressing wounds.” Click here for the full article.
Ziquitza Health Care Limited a new dedicated ambulance service in India, is striving to “save human lives by providing a leading network of fully equipped advanced and basic life support ambulances across the developing world.” Read more here.
How has do entrepreneurs operate and thrive in Sub-Saharan Africa, a business environment with lots of challenges, but also many opportunities? This BBC news story quotes a Nigerian entrepreneur as saying "[I] would have struggled to get to the same level I'm at now (if in the UK) because there's so much more competition.”
A new foundation, recently established by the South Africa-based Council for Health services Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA), the PharmAccess Foundation of the Netherlands, and the U.S.-based Joint Commission International (JCI), aims to improve health care delivery in developing countries. The foundation, called SafeCare, will introduce “a comprehensive quality improvement program using internationally recognized standards to improve health care delivery.” Read more here.