MSF Innovation Newsletter October 2022
Digital health interventions for improved patient support
The COVID-19 pandemic fast-tracked innovations in digital health in high-resource settings. However, the application of these technologies in low- and middle-income countries and humanitarian contexts is lagging – despite growing unmet health needs in these settings.
In a recent article on the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit (SIU) website, we take a closer look at 5 digital health interventions from across MSF. If you are new to the topic or want a refresher, you might first want to first watch this 2.5-min Digital Health Explainer.
In the Innovation Updates section of this newsletter, we spotlight two smartphone apps that improve access to MSF's services. The first is DOST, a Digital Therapeutic (DTx), which provides support to patients being treated for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis to improve treatment literacy, medication adherence, and access to counselling. The second solution is MapSwipe, which enables MSF staff to find those in most need of our services. This open-source mobile app aims at making mapping more coordinated and efficient.
This edition also features the Battery Recycling Project, which aims to investigate how MSF can improve the management of batteries at a project level.
As always, we have collected additional humanitarian and planetary health innovation insights in the Resource Highlights section.
We hope you enjoy the read!
Innovation updates from the MSF movement
Digital Therapeutics for Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis
The DOST Digital Therapeutic (DTx), launched in 2019, is the result of a collaboration between the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit (SIU), MSF India and MSF Operational Center Brussels (OCB).
This smartphone application supports patients being treated for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), offering patient education videos, medication adherence support, and counselling services. The app is purposefully designed to aid recently-diagnosed MDR-TB patients during the initial phase of their treatment.
From November 2021 to January 2022 the DOST app was provided to 28 tuberculosis patients in Mumbai, India, as a part of the project team’s initial feasibility assessment. This assessment is now being used to inform the upcoming expansion of the platform through delivery to a larger patient cohort.
"Dost" means friend in Hindi. Learn more about this project on the DOST case page.
MapSwipe informed MSF response to cyclones in Madagascar
In February 2022, the tropical cyclones Batsirai and Emnati hit Madagascar's east coast, affecting an estimated 300,000 people. After extreme weather events such as these cyclones, it is often challenging for humanitarian workers on the ground to identify which areas are most affected. A tool with the ability to assist MSF in this challenge is MapSwipe’s change detection feature, which allows users to compare two satellite images and indicate areas of change.
In the context of Madagascar, one image before the cyclones and one after the cyclones were used and MapSwipe users were asked if flooding and building damage could be seen. These insights then helped MSF's teams plan their response and focus their efforts on the worst hit areas.
The MapSwipe smartphone app is part of the Missing Maps project, an open, collaborative initiative founded by MSF, the British Red Cross, the American Red Cross and the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT).
Battery Recycling Project – Phase 1
The battery usage within the MSF movement has increased significantly in the last decade and is foreseen to increase even more in the coming years (especially li-ion batteries). Safe battery recycling and disposal are key components of responsible waste management and MSF's efforts to increasingly apply a Planetary Health lens to our medical humanitarian work.
In 2021-2022, after a request from MSF Operational Center Paris (OCP), the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit (SIU) reviewed how different types of batteries are used in MSF projects to better understand their lifecycle and what happens with them after use. The rationale of the Battery Recycling Project is to investigate how MSF can improve the management of batteries at a project level.
SIU's mixed-method review of MSF's battery usage and disposal practices found that the lack of a clear process for the battery life cycle within MSF can pose barriers to the organization's energy transition ambitions and potentially cause harm to both humans and the environment.
As part of the first project phase, which came to an end in June 2022, the SIU team developed clear proposals for new battery disposal best practices and processes. Learn more about the project on the Battery Recycling case page.
Resource highlights
Digital Health Explainer
Digital health is a broad multidisciplinary field which includes new ways of working at the intersection of technology and healthcare. Under its umbrella, digital health includes an ecosystem of telemedicine tools, health information technologies, and digital therapeutics.
If you're new to the topic or want a refresher, watch this 2.5-min Digital Health Explainer. The video also provides insights into the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit's patient-centred approach to digital health.
Read, watch, listen:
DNDi's Roadmap on Health, Climate and the Environment
Innovating new tools to prevent and treat climate-sensitive diseases is a necessary part of supporting communities impacted by neglected tropical diseases in their efforts to adapt to changing climates. In 2021, DNDi developed a four-pronged roadmap on health, climate and the environment. Read more »MSF's Evolving Approach to Planetary Health - A Spotlight
To reduce our carbon and waste footprint, MSF has adopted an Environmental Pact and pledged to cut carbon emissions by half by 2030. In the penultimate webinar in MSF's four-part Moving Forward series, "Responding to the Climate Emergency," MSF experts discussed our organisation's evolving approach to planetary health, which recognises that human health depends on the health of the planet. Watch the recording »How Data Helps MSF Counter Misinformation and Build Trust
"At MSF, we've seen the direct impact of the steady decline in trust in medical institutions and in organisations like ours in countries where we work." In this guest blog for Allegory, Sana Bég, Director of Communications, MSF South Asia, discusses the risk health misinformation poses to MSF and the patients and communities we serve. She also shares insights into how data can help MSF directly counter false health information. Read more »
Upcoming Event
Humanitarian Congress Berlin 2022, 11-13 October
This year with the theme "Feminist Humanitarian Action: From Affirmation to Transformation," the Humanitarian Congress Berlin (HCBerlin) will explore:
Strategies and best practices for sexual and reproductive health and rights in crisis preparedness and response.
The impact of humanitarian crises on LGBTQI+ persons, their marginalised (in)visibility in the humanitarian system and their limited access to health services.
The humanitarian consequences of the climate crisis and elaborate on what changes and steps are necessary, from feminist perspectives, to achieve climate justice in humanitarian contexts.
HCBerlin is hosted by MSF in collaboration with Médecins du Monde/Doctors of the World, the Berlin Chamber of Physicians, and the German Red Cross, this year in cooperation with Oxfam.
In our headphones
The Way Change Works
Disrupting the Status Quo with Bernhard Kowatsch
In this episode, Bernhard Kowatsch, Head of the United Nations World Food Programme Innovation Accelerator, talks us through the peaks and valleys of establishing a new unit within a large and diverse organisation, that has a mandate of disrupting the status quo to bring about significant change, in numerous locations around the world. Listen here »
The Economist – Babbage
How AI cracked biology’s biggest problem
Following DeepMind's announcement that their artificial intelligence (AI) system AlphaFold has predicted the three-dimensional shape of almost all known proteins, DNDi's Discovery Director, Charles Mowbray, guested Babbage, a The Economist podcast, to discuss how the breakthrough can accelerate research for neglected diseases. Listen here »
Until next time 👋
As always we would love to hear of any global health innovation insights or thoughts. Anything you would like to feature in the next newsletter? Reach out with any questions or comments on comms.siu@stockholm.msf.org or simply reply to this email—we would be delighted to continue the conversation!
Best wishes,
The MSF Sweden Innovation Unit Team