Health - Most Popular

Innovations in health care policies and programs (more)

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Smoke and Mirrors

By Alana Conner

British American Tobacco Malaysia has won the favor of the Malaysian government and people by making donations to cultural institutions, funding scholarships, and developing youth smoking prevention programs. But can a tobacco company ever be socially responsible?

Kim Feinberg - Self-Sufficiency Through Education

AIDS in South Africa has left millions of children without parents or any resources to help themselves. In this audio interview with Design for Change host Sheela Sethuraman, Kim Feinberg describes how her organization, the Tomorrow Trust, uses education to help these children grow into self sufficient, economically productive, and socially included adults.

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Marching to a Different Mission

By Georgette Baghdady & Joanne M. Maddock

When the Salk polio vaccine proved to be effective in 1955, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis had to choose whether to close up shop or to pursue a new agenda. The foundation first broadened its mission, but lost donations, volunteers, and public support. After honing its mission to birth defects, however, it recovered. Here's how the organization that eventually became the March of Dimes planned – and survived – its transitions.

Joshua Silver - Bringing Vision to the Masses

In the United States, at least 60% of the population wears corrective lenses. Worldwide, in contrast, only 5% of the population does. Such statistics have led Josh Silver, Oxford atomic physicist, to conclude that more than half the world needs vision correction but doesn't have access to it. In this audio lecture, host of the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford, Silver shares how he decided to "do something useful for the world" by creating specialized, liquid-filled corrective lenses that are now worn by some 26,000 people in developing countries.

Poor in Body

By Alana Conner

Toxic environments knock impoverished kids’ systems out of kilter.

Devendra Raj Mehta - Bringing Mobility to the Disabled

In remote rural areas in India, 18 million people suffer isolation and poverty due to their inability to work. In this audio interview, Jennifer Roberts, associate editor of the Stanford Social Innovation Review, converses with D.R. Mehta, whose NGO gives mobility to 20,000 people a year through the fitting of a high-tech prosthetic limb known as the Jaipur Foot. Mehta discusses the genesis of his organization, which makes the prosthesis freely available to the poor.

Dr. Helen Lee - Improved Disease Tests for the Developing World

In developing countries, many tests for infectious diseases never reach the market because there is little financial incentive to pharmaceutical companies to get them there. In this audio interveiw, Alana Conner, senior editor at the Stanford Social Innovation Review, converses with Helen Lee, whose research department at the University of Cambridge has developed tests that allow for the rapid detection—and thus treatment—of diseases in rural settings around the world.

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Smart Soaps

By Corey Binns

The Population Media Center mixes science with soap operas to protect public health.