Community health workers are increasingly critical to expanding access to care for people living in rural or under resourced communities around the world.

But with more than three quarters of all noncommunicable disease (NCD) deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries, entities like the World Health Organization (WHO) are encouraging countries to do more.

Medtronic LABS, an independent Medtronic-funded nonprofit organization, is doing just that by pairing community healthcare with technology.

LABS forges strong partnerships in the public and private sector, all while connecting patients to care through a network of community health workers.

These community health workers are equipped with LABS’ technology platform, SPICE, designed to help streamline care for patients and clinicians who get an alert if there’s a high blood pressure reading in the field.

The dashboard tracks health outcomes and population health indicators in real time — which can support policy and planning for health system leaders.

Since launching in 2013, LABS has reached more than 1 million patients with hypertension and diabetes, and trained over 3,000 health workers in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, Sierra Leone, the United States, and India.

“Part of the Mission of Medtronic is to bring healthcare and access to everyone,” said Medtronic LABS President Ruchika Singhal. “How do we use technology to improve health outcomes for low-and middle-income population?”

Medtronic LABS is one way Medtronic is working to advance health equity. Learn more about LABS and the future of healthcare systems.

Singhal was recently featured on the Medtronic Talks podcast. Listen to the interview:

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