Core77

Humans are very skilled at looking out for #1 and, for the most part, loved ones (see Lee Alan Dugatkin), but what do we do about our species as a whole? A species whose vast majority of members in underdeveloped regions are ravaged by disease in a world that, in developed parts, pumps out modern medicine and treatment as fast as oil?

Zinhle Thabethe, an AIDS survivor and self-educated speaker and activist, and Krista Dong, director at iTEACH, an HIV/AIDS-focused educational and solution-seeking program caught us up on the brutal numbers, facts, and the overall reality of desperate situations countless Africans face in the unwieldy spread of HIV/AIDS. They also, of course, proposed what's next. The challenges that any positive effort will face are crowded clinics, poverty, hunger, starving children, rape, gender inequality, and overworked and neglected caregivers. Global prevention campaigns, while seemingly well-intended, often forget to ask whether the media is culturally relevant--an imperative question to ask in order to make the smallest amount of progress. Take, for example, an actual billboard campaign that shows a happy man showering, encouraging the habit of showering as a feasible "treatment" choice for AIDS, with its message written in English. Does it take into account language, illiteracy, contextual associations, or at the very least, scientific fact? In a place with no food, no water, and high unemployment, is technology appropriate? Thabethe and Dong address and rethink these key factors through their work at iTeach, developing solutions that speed and increase funding and support to offer effective treatment to those in need. By beginning to partner with traditional leaders and with a focus on properly allocating funds, iTeach has successfully treated over 6,000 patients since 2005.

Jeff Fisher and Paul Shuper of The Center for Health, Intervention, and Prevention (CHIP) found a different, but just as compelling bottom-ground opportunity to work up from. They explained that understanding the dynamics of unhealthy or "risky" behavior can be of crucial service to marginalized populations to change health care worldwide. Successful interventions, and ultimately preventions, using this behaviorally-focused method requires the active collaborative input of providers, patients, and behavioral scientists. A realized solution must be evidence-based, delivered with minimal resources, personalized, interactive, engaging, encouraging, and educational. CHIP's solution takes the form of interactive software. A singular interactive program takes patients through a friendly and easy to follow tutorial, questionnaire, goal follow up, strategy selection, activity selection, activity, and finally, goal setting. The optimal end result is a better educated, more enthusiastic patient who understands exactly what is going on inside their body, which makes them more inclined to follow through with treatment and the upkeep of routine regimens.