Artemisia's Competition Judge
http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/socialbusiness
David Green has worked with many organizations to make medical technology and health care services sustainable, affordable and accessible to all, particularly to the poorer two thirds of humanity. David is a MacArthur Fellow, Ashoka Fellow and is recognized by Schwab Foundation as a leading social entrepreneur. He has been honored as the 2009 recipient of the “Spirit of Helen Keller” award, given by Helen Keller International for humanitarian efforts in blindness prevention and is the recipient of the 2009 University of Michigan Humanitarian Service Award. His most significant work is the development of an economic paradigm for making health care products and services available and affordable to the poor. This paradigm of ‘humanized capitalism’ utilizes production capacity and surplus revenue to serve all economic strata, rich and poor alike, in a way that is both financially self-sustaining and affordable to all members of society.
In 1992, David directed the establishment of Aurolab (India), the first non-profit manufacturing facility in a developing country to produce affordable intraocular lenses (IOLs), suture, pharmaceuticals and eyeglasses. Aurolab is one of the largest manufacturers of IOLs in the world (close to 8% of the global market share), with sales to 109 countries. David also directed the establishment of suture (wound closure product) manufacturing at Aurolab in 1998 and is now developing a social enterprise company based in Chicago to make hearing devices available and affordable via social enterprise channels in developing countries.
In addition to establishing medical manufacturing, David has helped develop high-volume, quality eye care programs that are affordable to the poor and self-sustaining from user fees. He helped develop Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai, India, which performs 300,000 surgeries per year, making it the largest eye care system in the world. 70 percent of the care is provided free of charge or below cost, yet the hospital is able to generate substantial surplus revenue. David has replicated this cost recovery model in India, Nepal, Malawi, Egypt, Guatemala, El Salvador, Tibet, Tanzania, China, Bangladesh and Kenya and has assisted the Aravind Institute for Community Ophthalmology to build their capacity to provide this assistance to well over 200 programs worldwide which have become self financing.
He is now collaborating with the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness, Ashoka and Deutsche Bank to create an “Eye Fund” that will improve financing for sustainable eye care. David works with Pacific Vision Foundation to develop an eye hospital serving N. California where revenues from insured patients cover care for the uninsured; collaborates with Grameen Health in Bangladesh to develop eye hospitals; and works with California Health Care Foundation to develop affordable retinal imaging for eye disease detection and monitoring.
