Over the last year, our innovation colleagues in the UK-based MSF Manson Unit have carried out a series of Digital Health Promotion pilots in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Tajikistan to evaluate a five-step process for developing context-specific digital campaigns in MSF operations.

World Diabetes Day (November 14) provides us with an opportunity to spotlight the substantial, and growing, global health demand for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes care and a chance to share an insight into the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit’s focus on supporting people living with diabetes in humanitarian settings using digital therapeutics (DTx).

In Durban, South Africa, following devastating floods in April 2022, MSF’s mental health team has been bringing music to some of the community halls and churches in which those who lost their homes are sheltering. The musical interventions are part of a broader medical and mental health strategy.

To learn more about how we can tackle misinformation and disinformation targeting our operations, patients, and staff, MSF launched the ‘Tackling the information disorder’ project in early 2020, funded by MSF TIC. In the context of the project, the team sought out a new reporting tool for misinformation and common rumours about MSF – MSF Listen.

The MSF Manson Unit launched an information ecosystem mapping initiative in the fall of 2021 in Bangladesh to assess how health information spreads within the community. The project was later expanded to more countries. Insights from this work will be used to design digital health promotion campaigns tailored for each context.

Tuberculosis (TB) patients in India continue to face stigma and discrimination on a daily basis. Hamari Awaaz, ‘our voice’ in Hindi, is a photography book that attempts to express the stigma MDR-TB patients suffer. Nine patients photographed daily situations that related to a specific stigmatising feeling.