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Failing to Scale: Fixing Common Missteps in mHealth Ventures
Telemedicine or mHealth systems have great potential to bolster fragile health care systems in the developing world. However, these programs often fail to survive beyond the pilot phase. A team at the Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship Program at Penn State studied 35 telemedicine and mHealth projects and discovered six recurring reasons for failure to scale. Program director Khanjan Mehta offers solutions to some common missteps.
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- Health Care, Technology
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As the eradication of polio nears, a new crisis for global health looms
“People need to start talking about this issue. Because it’s much wider than just polio and a polio-free world,” said Laura Kerr, who wrote the report. “It’s to do with immunization systems that could collapse.”
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- Health Care
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- vaccines
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Bill Gates: Polio will be eradicated this year, the endgame is near
According to Dr. Wenger, there are only 12 known cases of the wild poliovirus in existence today, in just two countries: Afghanistan and Pakistan. "In the last couple of years, we've seen unprecedented progress. In 2015 we could only find 74 cases; in 2016 we found 37, and then this year so far we've found only 12 in only two countries."
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- Health Care
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- public health, vaccines
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What India can learn from Africa’s fight against Ebola, via a health summit in Sweden
While science and data must drive global health policies, making the messages relatable is equally vital.
India, which is facing its own communication challenges when dealing with both infectious and chronic health threats, needs lessons in cultural contextualization.- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
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Bad medicine: the toxic fakes at the heart of an international criminal racket
The recent news that another batch of fake meningitis vaccine had been discovered in Niger is just the most recent incidence of a particularly dangerous and cruel criminal racket. As many as 1,500 cases have been reported to a surveillance database launched by the World Health Organization in 2013, and that’s probably an underestimate, says Mick Deats, head of the substandard and falsified medicines group at WHO.
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- Health Care
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- public health, vaccines
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India grants Pfizer patent on pneumonia vaccine in blow to aid group
The decision by India's patent office bars other companies from making cheaper copies of the vaccine and allows Pfizer to exclusively sell it in India until 2026. It's a big victory for the U.S. drugmaker in a market that has the world's largest number of pneumonia cases, a lung disease that kills nearly a million children a year globally.
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- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- vaccines
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Experimental HIV vaccine regimen is well-tolerated, elicits immune responses
Results from an early-stage clinical trial called APPROACH show that an investigational HIV vaccine regimen was well-tolerated and generated immune responses against HIV in healthy adults.
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- Health Care
- Tags
- vaccines
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Opinion: How technology is helping India move toward smart service delivery
In 2015, India launched eVIN, or electronic vaccine intelligence network — a smart, easy-to-use technology aimed at digitizing vaccine stocks in the country. It’s no small ask in a nation with the largest and most ambitious immunization program in the world — aiming to immunize some 156 million women and children each year.
- Categories
- Health Care, Technology
- Region
- South Asia