appropriate technology

As the Healthcare Reform Debate rages on here in the US, in other countries healthcare is being transformed by a new crop of social entrepreneurs popping up around the globe. This trend, micro health clinics, boast high-quality, affordable and accessible healthcare in rural areas of countries where income and health disparities can have devastating effects on the population.

We have previously posted highlights of the Healthpoint Services E Health Points here on AshokaTech, and there are many other models doing similar work.
Here is a list of four other initiatives using innovative business models and technologies to increase access to basic healthcare services around the globe.

Quite often, information about new health technologies for use in the field cross my desk and I feel as though I get a glimpse of the future—a better, healthier and more secure future at that. The most recent device, Freeplay Energy's Fetal Heartrate Monitor, couldn't have had better timing.

I spent last week in Mexico, doing site visits in rural Yucatan and Chiapas, to gain a better level of understanding of the state of access to healthcare services in these regions. I saw peri-urban, primary care hospitals with doctors who are over worked and unable to keep up with demand (with people traveling sometimes four hours by car to get there).

I also visited rural clincs. Of the 3 clinics we visited, one didn't have enough medicines for it's patients, the second was open but the doctor was not there due to sickness, and the third was closed (we found out the doctor attends that clincic once per week on Monday, Wednesday OR Friday -- we were there on a Friday).

One story that sticks in my mind is hearing from a doctor in a primary care hospital in Yucatan. They do not have the equipment to conduct ulatrasounds on pregnant women, so they must send the women to a larger hospital.

Every social entrepreneur seeks financial sustainability regardless of their mission. In looking to create a bigger demand for green products, Ashoka Fellow S. Rajagopalan figured out how to generate almost half of his organization's annual budget from entrepreneur-commissioned sales. Here's how he did it.

1) Train entrepreneurs

Through his organization, TIDE (Technology Informatics Design Endeavor), Rajagopalan adapts technologies such as stoves, pottery kilns and food processing tools used for production to become more environmentally-friendly and efficient. As an alternative to an expensive centralized sales staff, Rajagopalan trained entrepreneurs for two objectives: firstly, as a sales force that markets the product to their locality, and secondly as technicians that customize the products to meet local demand.  Because the entrepreneurs are from the local villages they understand local needs and are able to provide appropriate customization to the products so that they can be quickly adopted. 

Some of TIDE’s profit comes from direct sales, but the majority comes from the entrepreneurial middlemen who pay TIDE a 5% commission on each sale, allowing TIDE to simultaneously spread its technology, increase its client base, generate revenue and stimulate environmental entrepreneurialism in new sectors.

As an economist I'm always thinking about social entrepreneurship in terms of market efficiency, like in the case of increasing access to more accurate information through innovative ideas so that prices are fairer and there is a smaller dead weight market loss.

As a technology enthusiast I'm blown away by how Ashoka Fellows are being smart about fostering accurate information through appropriate technologies like Ashoka Fellows Adrian Mukhebi and Vincent Bagiire who are featured in the video above along with my colleague Abu Musuuza.

Cynthia E. Smith, Curator of Socially Responsible Design at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, recently wrote a post about the Ashoka - Lemelson partnership and our Fellows.

She writes: "Ashoka is now partnering with the Lemelson Foundation on a new initiative to support social innovators. The initiative AshokaTech now has over 70 fellows, individuals who are effectively aligning social entrepreneurship with technology."

She goes on to highlight the pattern-breaking work of Ashoka-Lemelson Fellows Matthias Craig, Howard Weinstein, and Amol Goje.

You can find the full post (and a lot of other cool content) here.