Network: Program Support

The organization: The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) is responsible for all public health matters in New York City. Their mission is to protect and promote the health of all New Yorkers.

The relationship: We worked with NYC DOHMH to build an application called ECHO : Electronic Communication for Health Operations. The ECHO project was focused on helping the NYC DOHMH improve the ability of their Community Outreach Teams (COT) to gather emergency preparedness and response-related data in the field. Here is a short video.

Website: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/home/home.shtml

The Clinton Global Initiative

The organization: Building on President Clinton’s lifetime in public service, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) reflects his belief that governments need collaboration from the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and other global leaders to effectively confront the world’s most pressing problems. After attending thousands of meetings during his career in which urgent needs were discussed but no action was taken to solve them, President Clinton saw a need to establish a new kind of meeting with an emphasis on results.

The relationship: We were selected to attend and present a Commitment to Action at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual meeting in 2010. Our Commitment is to open an Innovation Lab in Zimbabwe.

The organization: The Population Council confronts critical health and development issues—from stopping the spread of HIV to improving reproductive health and ensuring that young people lead full and productive lives. Through biomedical, social science, and public health research in 50 countries, The Population Council works with their partners to deliver solutions that lead to more effective policies, programs, and technologies that improve lives around the world. Established in 1952 and headquartered in New York, the Council is a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization governed by an international board of trustees.

The relationship: With funding from USAID, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, the Government of Norway, and the World Bank, InSTEDD partnered with the Population Council through their Kenya office to develop an innovative method for improved prenatal and postpartum screening for mothers and infants in resource-poor environments. We developed Baby Monitor, an an interactive voice response technology that takes clinical screening directly to women in the critical period before and after birth in order to detect complications and take action. Baby Monitor screening calls are powered by Verboice, one of our open-source tools which specializes in interactive voice response systems. To learn more about this project, please click here.

Website: http://www.popcouncil.org/countries/kenya.asp

Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS) Network

The organization: The MBDS Network is a regional collaboration comprising Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar and the southern provinces of China to share disease outbreak information and establish cross-border collaboration at sentinel sites.

The relationship: We have worked with MBDS since 2008 providing technologies for their regional disease information data warehouse, visualization and reporting of disease indicators, and web-based monitoring and evaluation scorecards with RAND corporation. In addition, we have also deployed mobile systems for cross-border collaboration along select border sites.

Ministry of Health, Cambodia

The organization: The Cambodian Ministry of Health is the government ministry responsible for governing healthcare, the healthcare industry, public health, and health-related NGOs within the country. The Ministry governs and regulates the activities of medical professionals, hospitals and clinics in the country. The Ministry maintains 24 provincial health departments and its main offices are located in Phnom Penh.

The relationship: As the lead for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for MBDS, the Cambodia Communicable Disease Control (CDC) Department was one of InSTEDD’s first implementing partners in Southeast Asia. We support CDC communication needs using GeoChat and other customized tools such as hotlines and mobile reports.

The organization: The National Centre for HIV/AIDS, Dermatology and STD Control (NCHADS) is the focal point within the Cambodian Ministry of Health with lead responsibility for recommending and implementing policies and strategies for the health sector response to HIV, AIDS, and other STDs. Through the management of effective health services, NCHADS works to reduce the risk of exposure and transmission of STDs and HIV as well as provide care and support for those already infected . It conforms to the coordinating strategy of the National Aids Authority (NAA) and works in partnership with other Government Ministries, Donor Bodies and Provincial Health Departments. The Center manages the disbursement of program and government funds according to previously approved work plans, under its Strategic Plan. Subsequently, it monitors and reviews progress against those plans, taking action to achieve conformance where necessary. Additionally, NCHADS has responsibility for the management of the National Dermatology and STD Clinic.

The relationship: We have designed and built extensions to NCHADS? HIV patient databases to integrate the contribution of village community health workers providing home-based care into a workflow to remind patients of treatment and testing appointments via text messages as well as mobile phone applications. We are also working with NCHADS on health system strengthening, which includes piloting patient identifier systems, establishing national data warehouses, and the deployment of medical record systems.

Website: http://www.nchads.org/

Ministry of Public Health Thailand

The organization: The Thai Ministry of Public Health is the government ministry responsible for governing healthcare, the healthcare industry, public health, and health-related NGOs within the country. The Ministry governs and regulates the activity of medical professionals, hospitals, and clinics in the country.

The relationship: We work with the Thai Ministry of Health to understand and support their technology priorities, primarily through our Thai implementing partners: ChangeFusion and Opendream.

Mukdahan Public Health Department (PHD)

The organization: The Mukdahan Public Health Department (PHD) is responsible for all health matters in the Mukdahan region of Northeastern Thailand.

The relationship: We have supported the Mukdahan PHD through our partners, ChangeFusion and OpenDream, since our partnership was formed in November of 2008. We support their rapid response teams with communication tools including GeoChat and the Reporting Wheel.

Chiang Rai Provincial Health Department

The organization: The Chiang Rai Provincial Health Department oversees health needs in the Chiang Rai region bordering Myanmar in northern Thailand.

The relationship: Through our partners, ChangeFusion and Opendream, we are supporting the Chiang Rai Provincial Health Department in their communication needs using GeoChat.

Bureau of Epidemiology, Thailand

The organization: The Bureau of Epidemiology is responsible for the surveillance of critical diseases throughout all of Thailand, except Bangkok.

The relationship: Through our partners, ChangeFusion and Opendream, we are supporting the Bureau of Epidemiology in the syndromic monitoring of influenza-like illness (ILI) and automated mobile alerts in over 900 hospitals using GeoChat.

Department of Health, Yunnan Province, China

The organization: The Department of Health in the Yunnan Province of China is the government ministry responsible for governing health care, the health care industry, and public health within the country. It governs and regulates the activity of medical professionals, hospitals, and clinics in the country.

The relationship: We are working with the Department of Health in the Yunnan province of China to deploy GeoChat and Dynamic Resource Mapping for laboratory and capacity mapping in 2011.

The organization: The CDC is a federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services based in Atlanta, Georgia. It works to protect public health and safety by providing information to enhance health decisions, and it promotes health through partnerships with state health departments and other organizations. The CDC focuses national attention on developing and applying disease prevention and control (especially infectious diseases), environmental health, occupational safety and health, health promotion, prevention and educational activities designed to improve the health of the people of the United States.

The relationship: We have worked with the CDC since 2008, extending EpiInfo to allow mesh synchronization of the data collected in peer-to-peer fashion, over mobile and through secure cloud services. This work has been published and presented by CDC numerous times and is part of the latest edition of the EpiInfo book.

Website: http://cdc.gov/

US Department of Veteran's Affairs

The organization: The mission of the US Department of Veteran’s Affairs is to fulfill President Lincoln’s promise “To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan” by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s veterans.

The relationship: We have provided consulting services to the VA on the use of web-monitoring tools, social media aggregation analysis, and collaborative decision support technology to improve the early detection of disease events that are significant at the level of the clinician, facility, and the system as a whole.