Operation ASHA – Last mile delivery of health services and products at the doorstep of the under-served

Expand access to health services and products of a high quality at affordable prices to disadvantaged communities worldwide

Project start date : 05/05/2017

Beneficiary country : Cambodia

Healthcare themes targeted

  • Infectious diseases
  • Access to quality medicines/pharmacies
  • Chronic diseases
  • Other

Fields of application

  • Information, education and communication for behaviour change (IEC)
  • Patient monitoring and medical data

Stage of development

  • Routine project/operational

Financing method

  • Public (grant/subsidies, call for proposals/call for tender, etc.)
  • Private (private investors, crowdfunding, philanthropy, etc.)
  • NGO
  • Government agency (USAID, etc.)
  • Intergovernmental or international agency

Area where the project is utilised

  • International (in several countries)

Economic model(s)

  • Subsidies
  • Sales of data analysis
  • Donations
  • Other (please specify)

Target audience

  • Entire population
  • Sick people
  • Pregnant women
  • Children - adolescents (ages 6-18)
  • Young children (0-5 years)
  • Patient family/entourage
  • Other

Project objectives

  • Decreased mortality
  • Decreased morbidity
  • Reduced suffering
  • Improved treatment
  • Other (please explain)

Materials used

  • Cellular (mobile) phone
  • Tablet
  • Computer

Technologies used

  • Mobile telecommunications (without data connection)
  • Internet
  • Geolocation
  • Mobile app (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, HTML5, etc.)

About the sponsor

Operation ASHA (OA)

Operation ASHA has developed a local, deep, low cost, last mile delivery system that is replicable worldwide. It serves 15.6 million people, living in over 5000 slums, villages and tribal areas across India and Cambodia with its own staff. Its model has also been replicated by third parties in India and seven other countries: Afghanistan, Tanzania, Peru, Uganda, Kenya, Dominican Republic and Cambodia. Operation ASHA’s CHWs raise awareness, scour the communities for symptomatics, ensure testing, link them to high quality medical practitioners and finally provide treatment and ensure adherence. Operation ASHA works in collaborations with private sector hospitals as well as governments/ public health departments, which provide medicines, diagnostics and physicians’ services mostly for free. CHWs are supported heavily with technology applications, including the world renowned eCompliance. Its first version was built with support from Microsoft Research. The partnership was tweeted by Bill Gates on Dec 7, 2012. The technology also produces accurate and reliable data, which is collated into an electronic medical record system and produces reports at the click of a button. In addition, Operation ASHA has developed applications for detection, management of lab results and accounting of user fee. Baxter, a multinational pharma company, Columbia University, USA and German Leprosy [&] TB Relief Association have taken licenses. Operation ASHA serves the poorest It currently covers five areas: Tuberculosis, HIV/ TB Co-infection, Haemophilia, Diabetes, Heart Diseases and Adolescent Health. Testing for blood sugar with glucometer is also provided. The idea is to ultimately develop Operation ASHA into a comprehensive pipeline that can deliver all health and related services and products to the Bottom of the Pyramid market. In terms of number of patients served, Operation ASHA is a big TB control NGO in India. It achieves a good treatment success rate, at a low cost. Simultaneously, CHWs deliver many products like ORS, contraceptives, Iron and Calcium tablets, nutritional supplements, and non-perishable food. In the delivery process, Operation ASHA has generated employment for nearly 200 semi-literate disadvantaged youths. It has also trained 4000 village youths in Cambodia on detection, prevention and treatment of TB.

Sector : Institutions (Communities, public authorities, NGOs, foundations, etc.)

Country of origin : India

Contact : Sponsor website Project website

Offline use

Yes

Open source

No

Open data

No

Independent evaluation

Yes, evaluated independently

Partners

  • Governments' public health department at national

    Healthcare (professionals and structures)

  • state and local level

    Academic entities (Universities, research laboratories, etc)

  • JPAL

    Healthcare (professionals and structures)

  • University of Chicago

    Institutions (Communities, public authorities, NGOs, foundations, etc.)

  • School of Medicine

    Healthcare (professionals and structures)

  • Duke University Medical School

    Healthcare (professionals and structures)

  • Innovations in Healthcare

    Healthcare (professionals and structures)