Innovations for Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health Management in Primary Health Care

Non-communicable diseases including mental health conditions represent one of the biggest challenges to public health and economies across the globe. The health impact of NCDs and mental health conditions is also felt strongly in the Asia Pacific region, often disproportionately high in the low- and middle-income countries. Introduction of health technology innovations such as reduced-cost point-of-care diagnostics, mobile health applications, telemedicine, wearable devices, other artificial intelligence and machine learning enabled digital health tools is poised as a key intervention for improving screening, diagnosis, self-care and management of NCDs and mental health conditions at individual, community, and primary health care settings.

 

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), under the regional technical assistance on “Strengthening Integrated Primary Health Care Management of NCDs” (56072-001),  along with PATH launched the “Technologies Beyond Borders” Innovation Challenge with a vision to reduce morbidity, mortality, and out-of-pocket expenses related to healthcare; hence decrease impoverishment and loss of productivity in the Asia Pacific region. Enterprises with deployment ready health technology innovations in the specified problem area from across the globe were invited to apply for the innovation challenge hosted jointly by ADB and PATH. The innovation challenge aimed to identify two fit-for-purpose innovations (one each in NCDs and mental health care) that can improve access to care at the primary care level and reduce out-of-pocket expenses for people in developing member countries.

The Final events of the Challenge took place on 13^th and 14^th March 2024 for NCDs and Mental Health respectively. All 14 finalists (9 from NCDs and 5 from Mental Health) presented their solutions to the esteemed jury. The 8-minute pitch was followed by 7 minutes of answering questions from the jury. And the winners have been selected! We would like to extend our wholehearted congratulations to the winners and shortlists. Also, we are grateful to our Jury for making this possible.

 

The selected teams (one each from NCD and Mental Health category) would be receiving funding of USD 20000 along with the opportunity to work with PATH for a feasibility assessment study of their solution in the ADB developing member country of interest, wherein PATH and ADB will continue to guide and enable smooth collaborations over relevant stakeholder both ministerial and technical as well as on-ground validation with health workers.