A Small West Virginia Town Rallies For Better Health

In S. King County, Wash., the organization Global to Local identified Seattle's ironic status as being a global-health center but having an increasingly unhealthy populace. Global to Local pointed local citizens to a variety of services, using a "connect the dots" approach to treatment.

A mobile diabetes clinic in Calgary brings comprehensive healthcare directly to people experiencing homelessness or low income at community health centers. The team provides services including foot care, retinal scans, blood and urine screening with immediate results, dietary counseling, and connections to housing and mental health programs. The "one-stop-shop" model eliminates the need for patients to travel to multiple appointments, ensuring they get the care they need.

With the help of several nonprofit organizations, the ECWA Eye Hospital provides free cataract surgery to help those in need who can’t afford the expensive surgery. The Hospital began providing free surgeries in 2016 and has since restored the sight of 5,800 people.

In West Virginia, a community health worker program trains community members to act as local health supporters. The program, which targets high-risk residents "in rural areas throughout Appalachia," eliminates the need for doctor visits for issues such as diabetes that are better treated at home with lifestyle changes.

Even though millions of people around the world rely on drugs like insulin to live, the big pharmaceutical companies often seem to value profit over people, and the costs of critical medications can be prohibitive. A small group of dedicated experts is working to change that, combining their expertise in science, law, and business to manufacture small-scale, generic versions of drugs like insulin that are accessible and affordable to all that need them.

Throughout the country, issues of health care exclusivity and rising drug prices are being addressed with creative solutions. Innovating new medicines and medicine deliver systems, such as an alternative EpiPen, is proving to be a helpful way to work around these surging prices.

Many different people are inventing health devices for resource-poor settings, but some organizations - like M.I.T.’s Little Devices group - are empowering developing communities and increasing access to healthcare by building medical devices that nurses and doctors in very poor settings can adapt themselves — or kits for making their own, often harvesting parts from toys to cleverly rig up medical equipment. It’s part of a major idea shift, one that’s transforming the design of foreign aid.

After sudden U.S. government funding cuts jeopardized South Africa's HIV programs, Limpopo's Hlokomela Clinic quickly reorganized around existing resources, training community health workers to identify and encourage farm workers to visit still-operational clinic sites for HIV testing. By leveraging volunteers, they partially offset the impact of losing their dedicated HIV testing outreach team and program funding.

The Attack Against Asthma initiative uses crowdfunding initiatives to purchase inhalers that are then distributed to university students with asthma. Since launching in 2023, the campaign has distributed over 700 inhalers in the country’s southwest region and has even extended support to people who aren’t students if they can provide proof of need.

The PhiferCares Clinic and pharmacy offers its employees and their families free healthcare and prescriptions. Phifer, a global manufacturing company, opened the clinic five years ago as a way to prevent medical bills from driving coworkers into debt and keeping them from retirement. This no-cost access to healthcare has helped 90% of Phifer employees hit their retirement goals, up from about 75% five years ago.