Mobile Health (mHealth) Economics

In this TEDx talk, founder of ClickMedix and Click Diagnostics, Ting Shih, describes how to create mobile health (mhealth) economics in order to provide affordable healthcare to all.

ClickDiagnostics and the MIT connection

As an MIT alum, I find myself drawn to the work done by ClickDiagnostics. Two members of the ClickDiagnostics senior management team went to MIT.

• Donald Yansen, Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder
• Ting Shih, Executive Vice President & Co-Founder

If you're not familiar with ClickDiagnostics, here's some information about this innovative organization:

ClickDiagnostics is a global mobile health (mHealth) social enterprise founded by international development activists from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to address the following global healthcare challenges:

1. Lack of access: Patients cannot easily reach doctors.
2. Lack of funds: Patients cannot afford the high cost of healthcare, and governments/NGOs are unable to subsidize under-served populations entirely
3. Lack of medical resources: Most countries face severe shortages of trained healthcare professionals, especially medical specialists, to perform adequate diagnosis and quality treatment in rural areas.

Our Mission is to bring affordable and quality health services to under-served communities, by enabling the creation of proactive and self-sustaining health systems driven by mobile technologies, community-level entrepreneurship, and value-based partnerships.

How did ClickDiagnostics begin?

What a great story! I wish I had been at MIT when this happened:

ClickDiagnostics was born in MIT Media Lab’s Development Ventures class, where we were challenged to create a business that would impact over a billion people in the developing world. We synthesized our ideas targeting health care using mobile technologies and community health workers and formed ClickDiagnostics. Across the campuses of Harvard University and MIT, we created a unique enterprise that focuses on maximizing social impact while being self-sustaining. On an MIT Legatum Seed Grant, we visited rural villages in Bangladesh, and captured live footage of health conditions. We were shocked and ever more compelled to make our vision of providing affordable and quality healthcare, a reality.



In May of 2008, we won the MIT 100K Business Plan Competition in the Development Track and incorporated the company. We used the prize money to develop our service lines and quickly expanded operations across several countries in the developing world, striking key partnerships with governments, large NGOs, telecommunication infrastructure companies, and health service firms necessary to create a cost-effective mobile health ecosystem, in order to provide affordable healthcare for the under-served population.

Vinegar and smartphone camera used to screen for cervical cancer

There's a story about Carrie Kovarick, an assistant professor of dermatology and a member of the Penn-Botswana program, using some vinegar and a smartphone camera to screen women for cervical cancer. Consider this a pilot project involving mHealth, telemedicine, and software supplied by ClickDiagnostics.

When vinegar is applied to the cervix, pre-cancerous cells dehydrate faster and turn white. A photo of the cervix can be viewed by clinical experts who can identify suspicious areas on the cervix.

ClickDiagnostics is involved in a number of global health initiatives.