It began with just a lunch. Two colleagues, two business leaders, one from the private sector, the other from a non-profit, meeting to discuss ways in which they might work together. What resulted, has become an inspirational model in skilled volunteerism that positively demonstrates how corporate and non-profit organizations can partner to develop groundbreaking solutions with universal implications.
At Cambia, giving back is an integral part of our values and culture. In the past year alone, our employees have volunteered more than 18,000 hours at community organizations and events. However, there are times when a challenge requires a more integrated, purposeful approach that utilizes key skillsets to fully understand the issues and identify potential solutions that address a problem of global scale.
The Story
In 2015, Medical Teams International was the sole provider of medical care to nearly 1.3 million refugees living in Uganda’s overcrowded refugee settlements. Struggling to keep up with the sheer volume of patients, the non-profit organization was desperately searching for a more intuitive and efficient way to handle their manual medical reporting process.
Cambia’s response to this unique challenge? Send a group of skilled volunteers from Cambia’s IT department to work directly with Medical Teams International. Together the two teams looked at the specific needs of the health clinics and then set out to build a mobile health application that automates patient tracking across Uganda’s refugee settlements.
To date, the mobile "Health Information Program (HIP)" application has been implemented in nine clinics and has helped with the medical diagnosis of over 190,000 refugee patients. Medical Teams is also planning to expand the use of the application to the South Sudan refugee population in northern Uganda, which includes approximately 40 clinics serving over 1,000,000 patients. Most recently, the partnership with Medical Teams International continued with a “sprint” exercise to enhance the app for use in Bangladesh, where Medical Teams is serving the Rohingya refugees.
Check out the project’s progress for the past three years:
2016:
Cambia Returns to Uganda with Medical Teams International
Reflections and Updates from Cambia and Medical Teams International Partnership in Uganda
2015:
Cambia Technology Experts Travel to Uganda to Aid Refugee Health Clinics
