4 billion people worldwide lack access to affordable, quality healthcare, such as in rural India where over 70% of health expenditures are paid directly by individuals and there are less than 1 physician per 1000 people. To address these challenges, a new model called E Health Points was launched, combining existing technology and partnerships to provide rural villagers access to doctors via telemedicine, diagnostic tests, affordable medicines, and clean drinking water in their local communities. The goal of E Health Points is to transform rural healthcare access in India by proving that innovations can bring modern and affordable care to those who need it most.

1. 4 billion consumers worldwide lack access to affordable, quality healthcare.

2. In India, Over 70% of point of service health expenditures are made out of pocket. There are less than 0.6 physicians per 1,000 people. The average life expectancy is only 64 years.

3. To tackle these health challenges facing rural villagers, the rural healthcare sector needs to be transformed.

4. What if we had the ability to transform the rural healthcare sector by bringing together the strengths of local organizations and an innovative private company?

5. What if we could bring the unthinkable—affordable healthcare—to those who need it most? What would it take to make this a reality?

6. Healthcare is a fundamental human right. While millions of the world’s poor face health crises regularly, many common diseases of poverty are preventable and treatable…

7. On October 28, 2009, Ashoka, the Naandi Foundation, and Healthpoint Services launched a new model to tackle these challenges and transform the rural health sector.

8. Combining already existing technology and building partnerships to create innovative solutions, the ‘E Health Point’ model was born.

9. Previously deprived of effective drugs and medicines, low income villagers now have easy access to them. The medicines are quality generics at an affordable price.

10. Local Punjabi’s are no longer reliant on unsanitary means of obtaining drinking water. The villagers can easily obtain their drinking and cooking water at an affordable price in their local community, as others are doing here at a Naandi ‘water point’.

11. A call-center was established and staffed with local doctors to provide valuable medical advice and consultations to rural villagers over a broadband video link.

12. Villagers who had never before met with a real doctor, can speak with real doctors in real-time.

13. Treatment without diagnosis is no longer a problem. This patient is receiving diagnostic tests, while her medical history is captured in an electronic health record.

14. At the cusp of a diagnostic revolution, E Health Points will provide patients with evidence-based medicine via innovative, low-cost diagnostic tests for a wide range of infectious and chronic diseases.

15. From diabetes to malaria, to HIV and kidney function, over 40 point-of-care diagnostics are available at affordable prices at each E Health Point.

16. With quick and simple diagnostic tests and innovative methods of communication using telemedicine, high quality, efficient healthcare can be delivered.

17. Already, waiting rooms are full of patients, with separate rooms for women and men.

18. Through community outreach, people will become familiar with the products and services available.

19. Those who have never experienced modern healthcare will now have access to clean water, doctor consultations, diagnostics, and a trustworthy pharmacy.

20. E Health Points, currently being piloted in India, aim to prove that innovations in technologies and business models can transform the rural health sector.