Jeeon

Our world shortchanges rural people. Globally, >1.5 billion people, mostly rural - have never seen a trained doctor. This gap is mostly filled by Village Medics (VMs) - untrained or semi-trained medicine sellers - who are first-points-of-care for 40-80% rural people across many countries. Patients seek care from them for everything from simple colds to minor procedures. They enjoy strong reputation and trust in communities, making them indispensable for rural healthcare delivery and achieving SDGs.

However, VMs have little medical training and lack the skills for providing quality care. Governments and health NGOs typically shun them, and have invested billions to displace them by building alternate infrastructure and cadres of workers, with few results. The key barrier to mainstreaming and integration with formal sector has been the difficulty of monitoring a decentralized group of entrepreneurs, and the self-serving but false belief among doctors that VMs are all unethical "quacks".