Google.org Awards MiracleFeet One Million Dollar Impact Challenge Grant
The Challenge
Over one millionchildren live with stigma and suffering due to untreated clubfoot. Each year, an estimated 180,000 babies are born with clubfoot, 80% of them in countries with limited or no access to treatment. In low-income countries, untreated clubfoot is a root cause of life-long poverty, illiteracy and abuse. Imagine a world where all children born with clubfoot have the chance to live active, healthy and productive lives.
The Solution
At MiracleFeet, making that world a reality is our goal. It motivates us each and every day. That world may be closer than we imagined, thanks to a $1M Google Impact Challenge Grant from Google.org. This grant will enable our team to further develop and scale our technology platforms to enhance patient support, improve treatment quality, and utilize e-learning and telemedicine.
Launched in May of 2015, the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities is a $20M project supporting nonprofits that use emerging technologies to create access and opportunity for people living with disabilities.
“At Google.org, we support organizations that offer innovative solutions to complex challenges. We’re thrilled to back MiracleFeet as they help build a world that works for everyone,” says Brigitte Gosselink, Head of the Google Impact Challenge: Disabilities.
Utilizing Innovation
Our collaboration with Google.org is focused on developing our Global Clubfoot Technology Platform. This platform comprehensively addresses clubfoot treatment in low resource settings by providing the tools, capacity and momentum needed to reach our goal of treating every child born with clubfoot. We can now scale our platform of tools and resources, which include:
- The award-winning miraclefeet brace that costs only $20 and was developed in conjunction with Stanford, Clarks Shoes, Suncast and in-country partners.
- An SMS system that encourages brace compliance by providing tailored messages with medical reminders to parents.
- The clubfoot patient platform—an information management system to increase the use of data at the clinic level.
- Brace sensors that can monitor brace compliance instead of relying on self-reporting. This data will be integrated into the clubfoot patient platform so that actual brace usage is part of the patient record.
- Mobile-native learning modules, being developed in conjunction withStanford to make training of new health care providers more efficient with tablet-based educational materials.
- A telemedicine and doctor-to-doctor platform that will be developed so rural healthcare providers can consult with more experienced doctors in the large cities for follow-Up appointments and brace checks.
At MiracleFeet, our goals are ambitious but attainable. Like Google.org, we believe that with innovation and effort, we can and will make untreated clubfoot a thing of the past.
