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Unlocking the Medical Equipment Donation Ecosystem: Is a Blockchain Marketplace the Solution?
Every year hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical equipment is donated to hospitals in emerging markets, only to remain unused due to lack of knowledge, parts or maintenance. According to Vikas Meka, a blockchain-based donation platform could help – but it would be difficult to entice stakeholders to use it. He explores a solution: A token-driven marketplace that could unlock new social and economic value in the medical equipment donation ecosystem.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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The Challenges of Going Local: A Medical Device Innovator Faces the Reality of Manufacturing in Rural Africa
Like many enterprises working in emerging markets, Noor Medical wanted to manufacture its product locally. As COO Andrew Bonneau explains, a local approach promised many advantages, from lower costs to a better understanding of its customers. But the company soon learned that manufacturing in developing countries like Uganda is often easier said than done. Bonneau discusses the obstacles the company has faced, and how they've overcome them.
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- Health Care, Technology
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What Needs to Change in the Indian Medical Devices Ecosystem for Innovators, Entrepreneurs and Patients
In India, imported products account for 80% of medical device sales, and most were developed for middle and high-income countries – far from India’s unique challenges of accessibility and affordability. In recent years, thousands of startups and innovators have emerged to build more affordable public health products. But Dhruv Pandey at Social Alpha writes that government and financing challenges will stop these innovators in their tracks unless entrepreneurs can find alternate paths.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Health Care
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The Million-dollar Fit: Companies Develop Affordable Prostheses for Use in Less Resourced Countries
EVERY YEAR thousands of people in impoverished countries undergo amputations. However, contrary to popular belief, armed conflicts or landmines are not usually to blame. Rather, the primary cause of most of these amputations is other types of trauma, such as automobile and train accidents.
- Categories
- Health Care
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Helping Low-Income Patients Breathe Easier: Three Solutions to Oxygen Market Failures
For a child with severe pneumonia—and every other patient struggling for breath—access to oxygen is a matter of life or death. And even though oxygen is just as important to hospitals and clinics as electricity and water, market failures stand between oxygen and the people who need it. While medicines and vaccines are its primary focus, the global NGO PATH recently zeroed in on how to improve oxygen supplies in low- and middle-income countries.
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- Health Care
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Hobbyist Makers vs. Global Manufacturers: Is 3D Printing Really the Solution to the Prosthetics Gap?
Be they startups or tinkerers, 3D printing innovators are trying to fill in the gaps in traditional health care, particularly in resource-constricted countries where prosthetic devices are scarce. For those who struggle through life without a limb, 3D printing offers hope. But are hobbyist makers and their 3D printers really the stopgap the limb-loss community needs? Certified prosthetist Jason Bender wades into the debate.
- Categories
- Entrepreneurship, Health Care, Technology
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How USAID is Capitalizing on New Trends in Development Finance by Attracting Impact Investors
As the funding landscape for global health evolves, new financing models for the development and commercialization of medicines and diagnostics are needed. Priya Sharma of USAID's Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact discusses the agency's forays into impact investing, and its recent report, “Investing for Impact: Capitalizing on the emerging landscape for global health financing” in this Q&A.
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- Health Care, Investing
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The Complex Truth of Health Tech: Why Greater Ultrasound Availability Doesn’t Always Benefit Patients
Advances in health technologies have reshaped the lives of communities, families and individuals, undoubtedly contributing to better health outcomes around the world. Yet, despite their potential, new technologies can also add new challenges, risking potential gains in quality, safety or cost. Nowhere is this more evident than in the rapid spread of ultrasound devices, which according to representatives of the NGO Management Sciences for Health, carry a potentially significant downside.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
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