New digital software reduces absenteeism in health centres

Digital public infrastructure is helping African countries build more sustainable health systems by replacing fragmented, donor-funded projects with interoperable digital services. In Zambia, for example, the SmartCare Pro electronic health record system uses thumbprints to identify patients and track chronic diseases like TB and HIV, ensuring continuity of care, where it was historically missing.

A hospital in Nigeria has implemented the use of an electronic medical record (EMR) system for patients to decrease mismanagement practices and increase transparency and accountability. The card that patients are given resembles an ATM card and acts as a means of health records and payment information.

Gender Equality Funds is a tool that makes it possible for people to know if the mutual fund companies in their 401(k)’s are gender inclusive. The tools pulls data from 4,000 mutual funds companies and gives them a gender score. The aim is to empower people to invest their money in socially responsible funds. “I believe this is going to be a tsunami of capital shifting away from companies that are not responsive on gender equality.”

The Kentucky metro area has some of the worst air quality in the country, leading to concerning rates of asthma and respiratory disease well above the national averages. But a group called AIR Louisville has implemented a creative, crowdsourced solution that utilizes GPS-enabled inhalers to help patients identify and address asthma patterns based on numerous factors such as avoiding heavily-polluted parts of town, and identifying the best treatments based on lifestyle needs.

Project ECHO - driven by a single doctor with a cause - pulled together a team of specialists to develop a model that combines technology with collaborative care and careful patient tracking to help cure for diseases spread to patients around the world through community healthcare agents, as opposed to only specialty centers. This kind of "disruptive innovation" is effectively working to demonopolize health care knowledge and access, and lends to a health system capable of meeting today’s soaring demands for care.

When Emily Kennedy was a teenager traveling in Eastern Europe she saw street kids she learned were trafficked by the Russian mob and decided to tackle human trafficking in her college work. The company she launched, Marinus Analytics, created a software application that has been used by authorities to rescue hundreds of victims in the U.S. and Canada and is expanding. The data it gathers has also debunked assumptions about how and where trafficking takes place.

The Million Death study revealed that the child mortality rate in India has decreased over the past 15 years. These results are most likely due to vaccine drives, free diagnostics, more health clinics and other such improvements.

In Uruguay, illegality and stigma surrounding abortions resulted in problems with maternal mortality rates. Utilizing a unique solution, a medical protocol was created to provide initial information and followup care to women seeking abortions.

One challenge of the United States’ health care system involves keeping costs down while simultaneously improving the level of quality care. Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles has adopted electronic medical records in accordance with the Choosing Wisely campaign, which offers guidelines on different tests and treatments to reduce wasteful or harmful ones for patients. The electronic medical records have helped doctors by alerting which prescriptions to avoid, and have overall reduced health care costs by $4 million.

The United States health care system is expensive and enables doctors to prescribe costly brand name medication instead of generic versions. Sutter Health assembles its doctors a few times a week to review with electronic records the prescribing of brand name drugs and the necessity of procedures as an effort to reduce health care costs and to reduce unnecessary tests. In two years, the initiative has saved $30 million.