Urban E-Health

In 2012, the City of Rio de Janeiro partnered with the New Cities Foundation and its member organizations to launch an innovative Task Force on E-health in the community of Santa Marta in Rio. The Task Force provided the community’s local clinic with an e-health backpack containing equipment able to collect patient health data. The clinic’s health workers were able to use the backpack to travel through the neighborhood to reach elderly patients and those who have difficulty accessing the family clinic due to mobility issues. The project’s recent findings demonstrate the potential of e-health to provide greater access to healthcare in a previously underserved community, increasing quality of health services and lowering overall healthcare costs through increased efficiencies.

The Urban E-Health Project was a WhatWorks urban innovation showcase at the NewCities Summit 2013 in São Paulo, Brazil and is now part of our Global Urban Innovators Alumni.

Urban E-Health newcitiessummit2013.org