Who we are:

In 2005 Daniel Zoughbie founded Microclinic International (formerly known as the Global Micro-Clinic Project) in honor of his grandmother who died from diabetes in Palestine. The organization is dedicated to empowering communities to prevent and manage diseases in less-resourced areas of our world.

What we do:

The goal of Microclinic International is to work with each partnering community to identify its most widespread and debilitating public health problems, and to develop a program that mobilizes an effective and sustainable community-driven response. "Micro-clinics" are the initial vehicles for priming this process. They bring together the critical elements that ensure the long-term evolution and survival of this effort. The driving philosophy behind the microclinic model is that each member of a social group can make a unique contribution toward creating a healthier society and can actively spread healthy behaviors. This is what we call "contagious health."

A micro-clinic is an organically formed small group of approximately 3-15 participants who self-organize to manage their disease. This social dimension is essential, as it counteracts an individual's sense of isolation and disempowerment and leverages the power of pre-existing social solidarity to spread healthy behaviors throughout a community. Micro-clinics are not simply support groups, but constitute therapy management collectives that address both the biology and sociology of major epidemics at a community-wide level.

How we do it:

Microclinic International catalyzes this self-organization and interfaces the network of micro-clinics with all of the medical, technological, educational, and social resources they need to successfully manage their illness. We collaborate with the local medical system to create a well-integrated resource infrastructure for the micro-clinic members, which includes initial education about the illness and life style changes, ongoing medical monitoring and guidance and, if appropriate, referral to other components of the medical system.

To this end, Microclinic International and its local partners create culturally salient educational materials and provide extensive training, first to the nurses and medical personnel, and then to the micro-clinic members. In turn, these members become more informed and empowered patients.

Beyond serving the specific patients who participate in the micro-clinics, Microclinic International's aim is to facilitate a community-driven transformation by disseminating a viable model for coping with a community's most devastating health conditions. It does so by harnessing the medical and social assets of a given community, establishing a lasting infrastructure for disease management, and leveraging the success of the micro-clinics to transform the beliefs and actions of other affected individuals. Thus, the combined micro-clinics represent a nodal social network, which promotes an altered, more empowered view of disease management and prevention in a community. By promoting healthy behaviors through social networks, micro-clinics work to make positive health contagious.

How we evaluate:

Microclinic International is committed to rigorously evaluating projects by drawing upon local expertise and biomedical science. In cooperation with local partners and project participants, we gather ethnographic, medical, behavioral, and psychological data with the aim of enhancing the effectiveness of our programs.