PROBLEM DEFINITION/GENESIS OF THE IDEA

 

While there are a number of successful organizations doing a great deal of wonderful work in developing areas, there is a lack of any coordination between them. I noticed this myself when I was in the Amazon. Prior to my trip, I was invited to give a talk at the Long Grove Rotary. While chatting with attendees I learned a fellow had just completed a dental mission there. We were doing medical/malaria work, so it was not “competitive” per se. However the thought of not knowing whether anyone else was doing dental, medical, or any kind of work in the area we were in was bothersome. Language barriers compound the problem as we have to do two levels of translation (English to Spanish to Achuar and vice-versa). And frankly, it is not fair nor realistic to expect the people we would be treating/working with to say “hey, there were a bunch a white Northerners here last week treating us, so are you sure we should also take these meds you are giving us too, they sure look familiar!?” It is not practical for NGO directors to Google for hours hoping to stumble upon some organization doing similar work in the region/village they are planning to work in. This lack of coordinated intelligence shows that “Instead of having 20 years of experience, we have one year of experience 20 times.” It’s the proverbial curse of history’s ignorance leading to its recurrence.

CONDUIT, v 1.0

 

I had the idea that it would be quite helpful to build a website/space/community where humanitarian organizations like CGI could visit in order see what else may be going on in an area. Benefits include:

• organizations would combine efforts and do more joint projects;
• there could be economies afforded by sharing resources of meds, staff, equipment, travel, etc.;
• people/patients would not be at risk any longer for iatrogenic care;
• by eliminating redundant treatments, health outcomes would improve, medication waste would be eliminated, ecological impact of biological waste production would be reduced, etc….

There are other benefits that could result from further build outs, such as the site being a place where organizations can connect to get donated meds, equipment, etc. (via a connection with my friend Will Rosenblatt, MD of remedyinc.org). While there are sites like IdeaList, VolunteerMatch, or GlobalVolunteers for connecting potential volunteers and organizations, there is nothing for organization-to-organization connecting, scaling, and leveraging. The closest approach to what CONDUIT can do is Michael VanRooyen’s consortium through the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, but it is just a web-based forum with courses and curricula, and nothing interactive. The closest functionality to CONDUIT is most similar to CharityNavigator.com, but it differs in that CharityNavigator.com limits by:

 

Charity Navigator		CONDUIT
Only organizations granted tax-exempt status under section 501(c) (3)		All organizations, not just US, not just tax-exempt.
No organizations exempt from filing the Form 990, such as many religious organizations, like the Salvation Army are		All organizations.
No private foundations, like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation		All organizations.
Require public support to be more than $500,000		All organizations, regardless of funding.
Only those charities that depend on support from individual givers.		All organizations.
Require 4 years of Form 990		All organizations, regardless of age.
Only evaluate charities based in the U.S. and registered with the IRS.		All organizations, US and international.
No hospitals, hospital foundations, universities, colleges, community foundations		All organizations.
		FILLS ALL GAPS

 

 

Such a “service” that I am contemplating is also very consonant with the Center’s work in advocacy, information exchange, and capacity building. The site would facilitate faster and easier information transmission/sharing.

 

Functionality would be that one organization could search for other organizations doing complementary, augmented, or collaborative opportunities via a variety of search conditions, such as: country, city, region, type of project/work being done (or planned), size/scope of the work, type of people being worked with (children, women, HIV/AIDS patients, imprisoned, refugee, anti-malaria work, Chagas, etc.) duration (time limited or  dates, periodic, on-going, other), deliverable(s) or outcome(s), needs (medications, government contacts, NGO contacts, local contacts, healthcare personnel, medical equipment, building materials, skills/expertise, etc.), current teams/partners, contact information as well as details about the organization, including: it’s location, leadership, specialty, and so forth. More fields can be added as needed.

 

We will be using a Cold Fusion platform and donating space on his server. Here is a mock-up of what it could look like:

 

 

 

 

 

Additionally, it could be a place to put our CGI Virtual Library for the growing set of medical and educational training materials we  have in use for our Cambodia, Tanzania, Bolivia and Ukraine projects. That is, we have digital copies of “Where There is No Doctor,” Wilderness Medicine training PPTs and treatment protocols, English and Spanish materials for educators working with elementary aged children, etc.

 

 

The Near Future, v 1.5

 

We have an up-to-date grants database that will be made freely available via Creative Commons licensing to users that will search via various Boolean terms.

 

Furthermore, the same mapping/project functionality that allows NGOs to connect to each other can easily be adapted to link them to potential volunteers to NGOs, thus functioning like VolunteerMatch.com and GlobalVolunteers.com.

 

 

The Future, v 2.0

 

We could also develop functionality that will be beneficial for smaller or newer NGOs. For example, web-based mailing list management of volunteers/staff/donors, document management, spreadsheets, etc., will allow data to be available and shared regardless of location. The idea is that many NGOs need tools to help them be more efficient and functional, streamlining their work flow.

 

There is also the social networking potential functionality ala Facebook.com. (This aspect would then be similar to IdeaList.com.) Users can post comments, share their experiences, allow for self-organizing user interest groups, community building, etc.

 

Our community can help to self-organize and facilitate working groups that address specific health issues in developing countries or for specific areas (e.g., maternal health, peds, etc.). We could develop multi-lingual versions as well.

 

 

The Potential, v 3.0

 

An entirely possible enhancement that would be an immense help would be developing a virtual electronic health record (EHR) for those we treat, perhaps powered by Google Health. Clinicians in the field could bring handhelds with biometric thumb print capability (as to not need patient literacy, or depend on names’ spellings, DoB or other impractical identifiers the field/community) and then download into a central EHR once back online. Then others could update diagnostics and treatments overtime and tremendously improve clinical outcomes.

 

Data mining could yield the creation and maintenance of several country/region-specific health-related databases composed of NGO health projects, countrywide health experts directory, etc.