Community at the center: How open source transforms health
In a refugee settlement in Uganda, a community health worker uses her mobile phone to visit families, follow up on children’s vaccinations, and update health records, instantly connecting her patients to the national network of care. In Nepal, Female Community Health Volunteers reach out to pregnant women, identifying high-risk pregnancies and ensuring that they receive technically sound and culturally appropriate health care so that no one falls through the cracks.
These moments of connection and care aren’t happening in isolation; they are the result of a philosophy that puts community at the heart of technology.
What are the principles of open-source software?
At Medic, we believe that when open technology serves the community (rather than the other way around), extraordinary things become possible.
We learned that the most powerful health innovations don’t emerge from boardrooms or in silos. They grow from the wisdom of frontline health workers, the needs of patients in their own communities, and the collaborative spirit of investors, implementers, and governments working together toward better care. Medic’s community-first approach champions the United Nations’ Open Source Principles, bringing them to life through what matters most: better health and stronger communities.
Open by default: Trust through transparency
By making the Community Health Toolkit (CHT) open by default, we are doing more than sharing code – we are building trust. Ministries of Health can understand precisely how the CHT works before implementing it nationwide. Health workers in rural Kenya can learn exactly how their data flows through the system. This transparency isn’t just technically sound; it’s ethically essential when dealing with people’s most vulnerable moments.
The CHT belongs to both the communities it serves and to the global open-source community of developers, implementers, and advocates who contribute to its evolution. By keeping it open, Medic is fostering a culture where accountability and accessibility go hand in hand.
Contributing back: Learning from every implementation
Every community that adapts the CHT to local needs and realities teaches us something new. In the CHT community, a suggestion from health workers in Zanzibar improves the experience for health workers in Nepal, while a code contribution from a developer in South Africa enhances functionality for implementers in Jamaica. This continuous and connected feedback loop weaves a global network of shared learning and mutual support where technical expertise and frontline wisdom inform better, more sustainable software.
Secure by design: Protecting what matters most
Health is deeply personal. By building security into every aspect of the platform, we protect not just data, but dignity, trust, and lives. A mother’s HIV status, a child’s vaccination record, a community’s disease surveillance data; these deserve the strongest possible protection. Medic works closely with both health professionals handling sensitive patient information and open-source technical experts who help us identify and address vulnerabilities. This guarantees that security measures are both robust and user-friendly, meeting real-world needs while maintaining the highest data protection standards.
Stronger together: Fostering inclusive participation and community building
Inclusion is vital in global health technology. Solutions designed without diverse voices can perpetuate inequities, rather than solve them. The CHT community spans continents and cultures, bringing together health workers in remote regions, software developers from technical organizations, university researchers, NGOs, and governments.
This diversity is our superpower. It elevates perspectives from every facet of the health ecosystem and gives the voices of rural health workers the same weight as policy experts. Medic creates spaces for everyone to connect, share knowledge, and co-create solutions that reflect the full spectrum of needs and experiences in global health.
Designing for reusability: General solutions for specific problems
While health challenges may be universal, the communities facing them are unique. When we design for reusability, we are fostering scale and impact – the intention that a solution working in one community can be easily adapted to serve another. The CHT’s open-source community fuels this adaptability, sharing configurations, workflows, and innovations that keep the toolkit robust, reliable, and capable of serving diverse needs and contexts.
Provide documentation: Sharing is caring
Thorough documentation is itself an act of generosity, making it possible for teams anywhere to build on shared learning. However, documentation goes beyond technical guides. It builds bridges between different types of knowledge and different communities. At Medic, we document not only the code and configurations but also the stories, the lessons learned, and the experiences of health workers using the CHT under unique conditions.
RISE: Empowering every voice
The UN’s RISE principle – recognize, incentivize, support, and empower – captures something crucial about community-centered work. When we recognize the expertise of community health workers, their supervisors, and national leads, we support their innovations and empower them as co-creators. We build better tools and a more equitable world.
This principle also resonates within our open-source community, where we recognize developers who contribute their time, support maintainers who ensure code quality, and empower new contributors to join our mission. Medic ensures that everyone feels valued, heard, and empowered to advance global health equity, regardless of their role, capacity, location, or background.
Sustain and scale with heart
True sustainability in global health means more than keeping servers running. It happens when relationships are nurtured, contributors feel supported, and communities have ownership and agency. This might mean training local teams and organizations in system support, mentoring community members to become project maintainers, or creating pathways for health workers to influence the CHT roadmap.
When we scale with heart, we ensure that growth strengthens the human connections and collaborative spirit that make our work meaningful.
The future of health equity through open source collaboration
The UN’s Open Source Principles provide a framework, but it’s the consistent listening, learning, and building together that transforms principles into practice, and practice into real-world impact. In this interconnected community of health workers and patients, implementers and advocates, we find the true power of open source: shared purpose, mutual support, and the collective belief that health equity is achievable when we work together.