Compendium 2012: Innovative Health Technologies for Low Resource Settings

Quality health care is far from being available to all people in need. Especially in developing countries, sick persons very often do not have access to appropriate medical devices and therefore die from conditions that could have easily been remedied with the help of basic health technologies.

A key factor in improving the situation is the development of solutions which are adapted to the specific circumstances of low-resource settings. The World Health Organization is working, along with experts, collaborating centres and Member States, to raise awareness of the pressing needs for appropriate solutions.

Specifically, in an effort to support dissemination of such solutions, a compendium of innovative health technologies for low resource settings which serves as a neutral platform was developed. The compendium 2011 was published in March 2011, and the call for the compendium 2012 was launched in November 2011. The objectives of the compendium are to encourage the dialogue between ministries of health, procurement officers, donors, technology developers, manufacturers, clinicians, academics and the general public and to stimulate further development. The compendium is a snapshot of health technologies (both commercialized or under development) which have the potential to improve health outcomes.

Technologies are selected for inclusion if they provide an appropriate solution to a health problem not yet addressed by any other technology or if they are better suited to address a health problem than existing solutions available. Examples of improvements are better accessibility, enhanced ease of use and maintenance, reduced training requirements, improved safety, increased acceptability, reduced resource requirements, or technical superiority.