Every week, the Piramal Prize team will post an example of an innovative entrepreneurial approach to addressing health challenges around the world. The aim is to encourage analysis, share best practices, and inspire revolutionary innovations that make better health and healthcare accessible to the masses. If you have suggestions or would like to contribute to the changemaker library, please email admin@piramalprize.org

After 4 months of intense competition and debate, the Piramal Prize team is proud to announce that the 2008 Piramal Prize for Innovations that Democratize Healthcare has been awarded to Arvind Eye Care. Additionally, we are happy to announce that our panel of esteemed judges awarded Anaemedia with a second award for potential to democratize healthcare.

We sincerely thank all our contestants for their excellent entries and believe that each team has great potential for revolutionize and democratizing healthcare in India. We hope that you will apply again for future Piramal Prizes.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

The Piramal Prize Team

After weeks of deliberation, the Piramal Prize has selected 40 semi-finalists. We received more than 150 applications, representing diverse initiatives from around the world; the range of applicants included individual innovators to well-known organizations and companies. From a large pool of worthy ideas and initiatives, the committee was required to identify the strongest applications with the greatest scalable potential to increase access to the highest standards of health for all. Semi-finalists are now required to complete a comprehensive business plan by May 25, 2008, 11:59 PM.

For those not selected as semi-finalists, please continue your great work. We sincerely hope you will consider applying for a future Piramal Prize.

Good luck to all!

We are no longer accepting entries for the 2008 Piramal Prize. Entries selected for the semi-finals round will be notified by early May. Thank you for your submissions and good luck!

Current estimates suggest that 100 Million people will have AIDS/HIV by 2010 with the burden mostly falling on sub-Saharan Africa. Accumen funded BroadReach has developed an innovative model that currently is the largest program for treating the poor of South Africa.

BroadRreach provides access to consistent and quality healthcare by working with private health practitioners across the country. Their model helps to identify and take advantage of excess capacity, enabling private practitioners to take on poor patients who could not otherwise pay, much like Medicaid works in the US. Doctors are paid on a per patient basis for individuals referred by the BroadReach program. In many cases, the private practitioners operate in areas where there is no access to government clinics.

By developing and deploying scalable, paradigm-shifting models, BroadReach is extending HIV/AIDS treatment to millions of people, enabling them and those who depend on them to lead healthier, longer, and more productive lives. BroadReach hopes to create a Medicaid model for South Africa, and to expand its services across the continent. The company’s model also encourages doctors to stay in-country and build out their practices, stemming the brain drain of talent in the healthcare field away from regions in greatest need of medical professionals.

For more information, visit BroadReach’s accumen site. Pictures and quotes taken from website.

Our previous featured changemakers have focused primarily on prevention and treatment of diseases in the developing world. However, an import and often overlooked step in the treatment equation is diagnosis. Researchers at University of Cambridge working with Diagnostics for the Real World have developed an innovative breakthrough in basic diagnosis of infectious diseases.

The Diagnostics Development Unit, together with Diagnostics for the Real World, invented technology to test for infectious diseases quickly and accurately.

In developing countries, infectious diseases go undetected because existing tests are slow, expensive, and require specialized facilities and skilled technicians. As a result, millions suffer debilitating, preventable diseases.

The two teams invented and developed the signal amplification system into a line of dipstick-style tests that are quick and easy to use and rugged enough to endure heat and high humidity. The tests are also extremely accurate at detecting serious and highly contagious diseases such as Chlamydia, hepatitis B, and Trachoma. They have helped prevent blindness among whole villages of children, reduced infertility in women, and protected people from infected blood transfusions.

This innovation has been award a 2007 Health Laureate award from the Tech Museum. To learn more, please visit their site.

We have extended the Piramal Prize submission deadline to April 11th, 2008, 11:59 GMT.

Fighting AIDS, HIV, TB, and Malaria in developing countries has turned into a large and resource heavy battle. While initiatives in these fields are beginning to create substantial impact, many argue that efforts will not be sustainable. The Doc-in-a-Box program sponsored by the Council on Foreign Affairs (CFA) is an innovative model for delivering primary healthcare into infrastructure poor areas to fight disease through affordable, sustainable preventative medicine.

Every day, thousands of companies use standardized steel and aluminum containers to ship everything from cantaloupes to cars around the world. And every day, these containers are stacking up empty at port cities across America, Canada, Western Europe, Africa, and Latin America. It is cheaper to leave an empty, indestructible 8′ x 20′ container at the Newark, New Jersey port than to send it back vacant to Japan for another load of Toyotas. The numbers are substantial: 1.4 million steel containers pass through South African ports alone, every year.

The Doc-in-a-Box proposal taps into the unrealized potential of these nearly universally deliverable containers. Welcome to an instant primary care outpatient clinic, staffed daily by one or two paramedics drawn from the local community and trained to conduct mucous or saliva-based tests for TB, HIV, hepatitis, and malaria; dispense drugs for these diseases; administer childhood vaccines; distribute condoms; hand out sterile syringes to IV drug users (where appropriate to regional epidemiology); offer basic information about prevention on a finite list of infectious diseases; and refer patients with other illnesses or trauma injuries to doctor- staffed clinics or hospitals.

Because the Doc-in-a-Box is made of completely standardized modules, the contents and medicines can also be standardized and bulk purchased. This standardization will both bring down costs and offer research and development incentives to profit-based industry for the development of still better diagnostic and treatment tools.

Availability of preventative medicine in these infrastructure poor areas could significantly improve overall health. For more information about Doc-in-a-Box, visit their website at the CFA.

Picture and quote taken from CFA website.

Just a reminder - applications for the Piramal Prize are due on April 1st, 2008.

mothers2mothers (m2m) is a sustainable, nonprofit organization working to reduce transmission of HIV/AIDS from pregnant mothers to their offspring. According to mothers2mothers - each month, more babies are born with HIV in one clinic in Africa than in one year in the United States, Canada and England combined. Medications widely used in the developing world are capable of drastically reducing HIV transmission rates from mother to child. However, these medications are not commonly used in African Clinics. m2m seeks to remedy this shortcoming. At the core of the M2M model are HIV positive mothers who have been trained to lead to treat and support mothers at risk of transferring HIV/AIDS at birth. So far, their services have been extremely effective with a 95% reduction of transmission at all M2M clinics. Here is some more information on their innovative model:

mothers2mothers has developed a unique model at the community level that is cost effective, easily replicable, scalable and adaptable to any culture.

m2m trains and employs HIV-positive mothers who have themselves benefited from our services to become ‘Mentor Mothers‘. These Mentors comprise a team of caregivers and educators for other HIV-positive mothers and become an integral element of clinical prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) care.

Located in antenatal clinics, maternity wards, post-delivery clinics and hospitals that offer medical treatment to women living with HIV, m2m works alongside established PMTCT treatment programs. We provide a comprehensive service to foster a supportive environment – one which promotes empowerment and companionship, assists women in combating stigma within their families and communities, supports a mother’s adherence to medical treatment, and reduces the likelihood that her children will become AIDS orphans. 

Services include:

• Regular support groups
• Formal and informal individual counseling
• Help with issues of stigma and disclosure to family and friends
• Comprehensive education sessions about HIV/AIDS, prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), personal and the newborn’s well-being. 
• Daily gatherings for nutritious lunches and nutrition education

To learn more about mothers2mothers, visit their website. Picture and information taken from m2m.org.