Our projects

The introduction of new tools, new recommendations or reflections that intervene before or after patient treatment contribute to improving health care. This is the case, for example, when a new rapid diagnostic test enters the market, or when an application allows text messages to be exchanged with a cohort of vulnerable patients for better monitoring of their treatment and their state of health remotely. This is where the MSF Foundation comes in. Our team, completely integrated within MSF, is in direct contact with the real problems observed on the ground. To respond to them, we combine the unique resources and knowledge of MSF with the external skills of partners committed to complementary technologies and knowledge

Improving access to diagnostics in LMIC

Under-diagnosis and delays in diagnosis or screening are a major public health problem in resource-limited countries. This is the case, for example, in the management of epidemics, where a late alert and response can considerably increase the number of victims. Delayed diagnosis, meanwhile, reduces the chances of survival, as in the case of cervical cancer. In concrete terms, these problems can be explained by the following causes:

Either the product exists but is not available, or is too expensive and/or not adapted to MSF's areas of intervention => The MSF Foundation will work to make it available and adapted to the regions of deployment (equity).
Or the tool does not exist, and we need to create this new medical diagnostic device. (discovery)

The projects in this field create tools and/or implement new practices to meet these challenges.

Antibiogo

Antibiogo is a diagnostic aid medical device that aims to help doctors prescribe the most effective antibiotics to their patients. It is available as a free, open source and offline Android application. It allows non-expert laboratory technicians to measure and interpret antibiograms. It provides accurate results that can also be used for monitoring purposes and updating empirical treatments based on actual etiology.

RDTs : Measles and meningitis

DiaTROPIX is a new platform for the development and production of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) at the Institut Pasteur in Dakar. This non-profit initiative aims to produce new rapid diagnostic tests that can be made available in countries where access to laboratory diagnosis is low or non-existent.
The MSF Foundation is financing and supporting the development by DiaTROPIX of two new RDTs for measles and meningitis. These two diseases with high epidemic potential represent a real public health problem in countries in which MSF conducts medical programmes, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

AI4CC

The MSF Foundation and its partners will conduct -upon ethical board validation of MSF and Malawian authorities- this clinical study in Malawi as part of MSF's program for care of women with cervical cancer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the screening program in Blantyre health centers.

Rehabilitation

In low- and middle-income countries, over 50% of patients needing rehabilitation have no access to it. This lack of rehabilitation care can have serious physical, functional, psychological and social consequences for patients. The MSF Foundation and MSF have come to the common conclusion that the supply of rehabilitation care is too limited and non-specialized.

3D Program

The use of 3D technology makes it possible for the best experts to remotely design upper limb prostheses and compression orthoses using digital impressions of face and neck burns of patients treated by MSF in Jordan, Haiti, and Gaza.

Developing rehabiliation care

Physiotherapy has been part of MSF activities for years, mostly regarding trauma and burns. The MSF Foundation launched in 2017 the 3D printing project and advance practice in rehabilitation for burn faces and upper limb prosthetics. In coordination with ops and medical team in MSF, the MSF Foundation will develop new activities and support initiatives from the field to better integrate physiotherapy in our offer of care, especially regarding pediatrics, women health and burn rehabilitation.

Closed projects

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Alert-Epidemics

Alerte-Epidemics is a system for processing and notifying alerts to detect and respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases, including measles, meningitis, cholera, and COVID-19, in fragile settings.

The project was implemented between 2020 and 2024.

SMS AFYA-YETU

A program designed to enable people living with a chronic disease, particularly those with medical or social vulnerabilities, to quickly identify and report problems that could lead to a lack of follow-up in their treatment or a deterioration of their state of health.

Yellow fever study

A solution to the global vaccine shortage

Mini-Lab

The purpose of the Mini-Lab project is to design and produce a small-scale, autonomous, transportable clinical bacteriology laboratory which is affordable and above all suited to the MSF’s fields of intervention. This concept, developed by MSF with its partners, is also intended to be made available to health care operators in countries with limited resources. The Mini-Lab project hosted by MSF has been able to benefit from other funding mechanisms and the Foundation has been able to redirect its funding to other emerging initiatives.