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Programs

Our programs aim to accomplish the three main components of the WISH model: peer-to-peer learning, women-inspired technologies, and community workforce training. We deploy innovative women-centered technologies for self-screening at home with the same diagnostic precision available in traditional healthcare settings. We empower female community health staff, midwives, and nurses to treat most lesions. We augment women-to-women storytelling in person and with technology, helping break down shame and stigma, and allowing women to lead the way to their individual and community health.

Our strategy includes three components: Screening, See & Treat, and Community Empowerment.

Screening
See & Treat
Community Empowerment

Screening

Our Strategy: HPV Sampling + Visual Inspection at Home

In low- and middle-income nations, Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) coupled with HPV testing is the most commonly recommended screening method. We will advance VIA with a superior approach: self-imaging with an artificial intelligence algorithm coupled with HPV self-sampling.

This will reduce healthcare visits by more than 90% and avert 2 deaths per 100 women screened.

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Self-HPV Screening

Our cost-effective self-sampling platforms gives women control over the first step of the HPV screening process. Through community workforce-distributed self-HPV sampling, we have informed national screening guidelines and increased testing coverage by 60% in six months.

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Callascope Self-VIA

Callascopy, self-imaging coupled with artificial intelligence algorithms for rapid decision making (MIT-Lemelson and Cisco awards), is unequivocally superior to traditional devices used for Visual Inspection of the Cervix with Acetic Acid (VIA) which have high variability and low quality-control.

Click Here to see Self-HPV Testing Video
Click Here to see the Callascope Video

The Callascope and self-HPV tests put the entire screening process in the hands of women.

See & Treat

Gold-Standard Care Delivered Directly to Communities

Providing healthcare near a woman’s home exemplifies the World Health Organization's efforts to support universal health coverage through integrated service delivery. Picking up where screening leaves off, the Pocket Colposcope, diagnostic software, and thermocoagulator provide hospital-level treatment at one-tenth of the cost of traditional hospital equipment.

We have successfully deployed these technologies in multiple countries and, now, with USAID and NIH support, we are training the community healthcare workforce in Peru and Kenya to use them to diagnose and treat women with positive screening results in just one visit.

Above: Click to view the Pocket Colposcope in action

 Above:  Click to learn more about the Thermocoagulator

Community Empowerment

Hearing Women's Vital Voices

Storytelling is a powerful community participation tool that can catalyze action within communities. The WHO evidence map shows community participation and engagement is key to positive care-seeking behavior for reproductive health.

We employ these strategies every day with our partner communities.

 

Videos courtesy of HOPE Peru.