harnessing 21st Century tools 
to assure the 
quality, reliability and safety 
of health care devices 
for everyone, everywhere

We're growing a community to positively disruptor the status quo -- join us! 

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Kate Michi Ettinger, JD 

Kate, a health care product designer and bioethicist, turned her focus to this issue following a chance meeting in 2011 at Oxford's Emerge Conference with Embrace's CEO who confirmed Kate's hunch: a market gap in the regulation of quality and safety for health care devices poses a challenge for health care entrepreneurs designing products for low and middle income countries.  Research began at Health 2.0 India 2012 to better understand the issues health care entrepreneurs face when designing products in these markets.  In September 2012, two health care entrepreneurs opted to "prototype" the concept of building Integrity by Design into their ventures.  These prototypes continue in a "learning loop."  In April 2013, TEDxBarcelonaChange invited Kate to spread the idea of Integrity by Design for "Positive Disruption in Global Health." TEDxChange sponsored by the Gates Foundation. Kate's TEDx talk: Integrity by Design 

Prototype Clients for Integrity by Design:
  • A health care tech/social enterprise example of Integrity by Design in Operations: 
Under the leadership of social innovator Carolin Silbernagl, dotHIV is a social enterprise at the intersection of health care and internet technology that integrates integrity by design into its founding operations. dotHIV is a pioneer as the first and only social mission enterprise in the new marketplace of top level domains (TLD) created by the internet.  The dotHIV policy advisory group had a kickoff in March 2013. The policy reports and methods from this working group will be accessible and open sourced as a template and tool for other social mission ventures to leapfrog into this emerging market.
  • A mobile health application example of Integrity by Design in Product Development: 
Walter Karlen, PhD, a mobile health application developer and post-doc in bio-medical engineering, agreed to prototype the concept with a series of ethics consultations on a mobile health application.  These ethics consultations occurred throughout the design process- at the concept stage and during usability-prototype testing.  The integration of Integrity by Design from the outset of product design shaped the product's development.  Results of this collaboration have been presented at the Global Health & Innovation Conference, Yale and Sustainable Rural Health Research Day, South Africa.  Results and methods are in preparation for open source publications. 
  • Will you be our next prototype collaborator?  
Do you have a health care product, service or enterprise in the early stage of development that is ripe for building Integrity by Design?  We want to work with people with products, services and enterprises who want to play with building Integrity by Design at the inception or at a pivot in the development cycle. 

Do you want to build an open source toolbox for building Integrity by Design into health care products, services and operations? 
Bring your passion and your skills and participate in disrupting the status quo... we make hope happen.

Advisors, Builders, Collaborators & Designers

Ubuntu, an ethos from Southern Africa, describes a way to be- a humanist ethic.  It is the warmth extended to a neighbor or to a stranger.  The human act of coming together to help someone in need.  People take care of themselves in a way that enables the community around to better take care of themselves. (Nelson Mandela talks about Ubuntu)  

Our aim is to empower health care and social entrepreneurs with the tools needed to realize their social impact goals with integrity, so that they can work in a way that honor the wisdom of Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel, "I don't want to realize my dreams at the expense of someone else's nightmare." 

Our commitment is to foster ubuntu within and through our operations to promote health and human dignity for all by harnessing the power of 21st Century technologies, transparency and open source development applied to health care product development. 

Progress to date has been a team effort with invaluable contributions from advisors, builders, collaborators & designers; with gratitude and appreciation for your support:
  • Nancy Dubler
  • Ian Page
  • David Karshmer
  • Andrew Lyon
  • Indy Johar
  • Matthew Abrams
  • Carrie Zoubul
  • Megan Yip
  • Maria Theresa de Avila
  • Chris Geraghty
  • Carolin Silbernagl, dotHIV
  • Walter Karlen, grantee of Grand Challenges Canada
  • Brooke Estin
  • Daniel Hires
  • Everett Harper
  • Mike Lovas
  • Diana To

Funders & Supporters 

This initiative has been made possible thanks to the generous support of these Angel philanthropists:
  • Bruce and Vivian Ettinger
  • Christopher Douglas
  • Jean and Phil Davy
  • Dagmar Quentin
  • Irma and Malcolm Wilson
  • Helene Finidori