Three projects that offer new ways to deliver health care services have won a unique competition focused on disruptive innovations in health and health care. Co-sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and Ashoka's Changemakers, the competition attracted more than 300 entries seeking to transform health and health care in ways that better meet consumer needs.

Below are descriptions of the winners and finalists from the "Disruptive Innovations in Health and Health Care: Solutions People Want" competition. Learn more about the competition by reading the news release.

Competition Winners

Project Echo: Knowledge Networks for the Treatment of Complex Diseases in Remote, Rural, Underserved Communities – University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (Albuquerque, NM)

Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is an innovative, collaborative partnership of an academic medical center with a network of rural health clinics, the New Mexico Public Health Service and the state Department of Corrections to deliver health care to patients residing in underserved areas who have common, chronic diseases. The key component of the ECHO model is a disruptive innovation called a Knowledge Network, through which the expertise of a single specialist is shared with several primary health care providers, each of whom sees numerous patients. Telemedicine and Internet connections enable specialists in the program to co-manage patients with complex diseases using best practice protocols, case-based knowledge networks and learning loops.

Family Coaching Clinics – UCLA Semel Institute Global Center for Children and Families (Los Angeles, CA)

The Family Coaching Clinics offer a new model of preventive mental health for children and families. Located in retail centers and focused on a variety of specific child-rearing issues, the clinics reach families who might never seek out traditional counseling services or might not do so until serious problems arise. The clinics provide coaching designed to give families the tools they need to resolve common challenges before they develop in to serious problems, by changing family behaviors in ways that have been proven to be effective.

Instant Birth Control– Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette (Portland, OR)

Instant Birth Control provides women in Oregon and Washington online access to hormonal contraception (e.g. birth control pills). Instant Birth Control patients receive all necessary health screening and monitoring to assure safe quality care. By providing access to hormonal contraception online, Instant Birth Control empowers women to take charge of their reproductive health by providing access to primary care 24/7, in the privacy of their home. Because they can avoid taking time off from work, school or family commitments, as well as travel and waiting time to see doctors in person, patients can manage their contraceptive and sexual health care in ways that are far more convenient for their schedules.

Other Finalists

Rotavirus Via Oral Thin Film Delivery – Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have developed a vaccine delivery system that utilizes a quick dissolving oral thin film that can be stored at room temperature and is as easy to take as a breath strip. This innovation eliminates the major barriers facing most mass immunization programs due to its ease of administration—no needles or other invasive methods are required to give the vaccine—acceptance by patients, and the fact that the vaccines don't require refrigeration. This novel system offers the promise to transform the way all vaccines and complex biopharmaceuticals are delivered across the globe.

Respira!: An Extremely Affordable Device for Better Asthma Care – Stanford University Design School and School of Medicine (Stanford, CA)

A collaboration between design and medical staffs at Stanford University has created a low-cost paper spacer that attaches to inhalers for children with asthma. The spacer, which captures the discharged medication and holds it within the inhaler until the patient inhales it, can help kids use inhalers more effectively to prevent and calm acute asthma attacks. The paper spaces can be produced at a fraction of the cost of traditional spacers and, when distributed as a flat, unassembled sheet, can be sent for the cost of stamp and precisely folded into a usable form at its destination. This innovation is proving effective in Mexico, where its use has helped more children use inhalers properly and effectively to get asthma medication into their lungs, yielding cost savings from reduced hospitalizations and clinic visits and overall health improvements.

Saude Crianca Renascer: An Integral Perspective of Health – Associação Saude Criança Renascer (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Providing medical services to children in low-income families in Brazil by itself does not go far enough to improve children's health. Renascer recognizes the importance of treating the whole child and focuses on addressing the socio-economic conditions of the family. Working with children at Lagoa Hospital and their families, Renascer seeks to change harsh life conditions of poor children in five areas: Health, Family Income Generation, Housing, Education and Citizenship. Treating children as a whole, by addressing not only their medical needs but other key factors in their lives and environments that influence their health, has helped to decrease re-hospitalization in more than 60 percent of Lagoa Hospital's patient pool and has improved the health status of children served by the program.

Patient Opinion International – Patient Opinion (Sheffield, United Kingdom)

Using Web 2.0 technologies, Patient Opinion International has created a kind of "Angie's List" for health care services in the United Kingdom. Patient Opinion enables patients to share their stories online and rate the care they receive at hospitals. After 18 months and thousands of user postings, the site provides a tool that has empowered patients with a voice that is being heard by hospitals and doctors, who are making changes in services as a result.

Space Age Medical Care for Use on Earth – Henry Ford Hospital (Detroit, MI)

This entry suggests that providing medical care for astronauts in deep space and for patients in many areas of the world is more similar than one might think. An innovation spearheaded by Henry Ford Hospital expands use of portable ultrasound devices originally developed by NASA to increase diagnostic capabilities in remote, rural or underserved populations. The portable ultrasound devices are one-sixth the cost of previously existing devices, and can be placed in non-hospital, community settings and staffed by remote physicians for a fraction of the expense for a similar examination under standard conditions. Recent use by NASA on the International Space Station and at the Turin Winter Olympics have demonstrated that ultrasound can provide diagnostic images that are comparable to ones provided through more expensive interventions and that the ultrasound examinations can be performed by non-physicians with a high degree of accuracy.

Scojo Microfranchises Deliver Affordable Reading Glasses – Scojo Foundation (New York, NY)

Scojo Foundation improves vision while at the same time creating economic opportunity in developing countries through a microfranchising model that delivers low-cost reading glasses to people who lose their near vision due to natural aging. Scojo equips and trains village-based

Vision Entrepreneurs to conduct screenings, sell affordable reading glasses and refer those with more serious vision needs to partner eye clinics. This solution provides new hope for more than 700 million rural tailors, mechanics, farmers, weavers and housewives around the globe whose working lives require close-up vision and who, until now, have not been able to overcome the economic and transportation barriers they face in seeing a doctor or purchasing glasses.

Better Aids Treatment for Patients Living in Resource-Poor Regions – PointCare Technologies (Marlborough, MA)

PointCare has developed a portable laboratory instrument that enables patients with HIV/AIDS to more affordably and easily receive the regular immune status CD4 testing necessary to properly stage their antiviral therapy. Without this testing, treatment is started too soon, with the danger of the patient suffering from drug toxicity, or too late, which presents the risk of death from infection. This innovation overcomes the barrier of CD4 testing in remote, rural populations by introducing a portable laboratory instrument that operates on alternative power sources, eliminating the need for cold chain shipping or refrigerated storage of reagents, and enabling any caregiver to operate the device. By bringing this vital testing to patients where they live, this innovation offers improved treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries.