GCN Contracts with PMMI to Expand Health Care Access to Ghana

We at Global Commerce Network believe that entrepreneurs can and should innovate products and services that serve people. Primary Mobile Med International is on the front lines of doing just that. Based in Topeka, Kansas, this business is equipped to expand low-cost, high quality health-care access to millions of underserved people in Ghana.

GCN, an NGO with 501(c)3 non-profit status since 1994, has had a long relationship with PMMI. We have contracted with PMMI to implement GCN’s Ghana Health Care Initiative. As GCN’s vendor, PMMI will be using its mobile medical clinics (MMCs) in Ghana to provide standardized health screenings in coordination with the Ghana Health Service. PMMI has established a contract with Ghana's Ministry of Health to place up to 3000 MMCs in Ghana, in urban and rural areas.

This is a game-changer, not only for millions of people who will now have access to health care, but also for Ghanaian and international health-care researchers.

PMMI has developed a proprietary electronic medical records system (EMR) that is simple to use, even in places like Africa. The EMR is installed in each medical container, which opens the doors to multiple possibilities for patient care and health-care research.

Patients will be registered into the system and receive an ID card with their unique patient identifier. Once registered into the system, they will be screened for hypertension, diabetes, general vision wellness, hepatitis B & C, neurological identifiers, TB, and environmental risks. Medical professionals will be able to communicate electronically with patients—to send appropriate reminders and manage follow-up care.

To strengthen GCN’s Ghana Health Care Initiative, PMMI is also coordinating efforts with distinguished professors, two universities, physicians, and other health-care organizations.
With the implementation of the screening program in Ghana, PMMI will help deliver the necessary preventative care, resulting in measurable outcomes that in turn can be shared with medical research facilities, global health reporting agencies, and government health officials.

PMMI's CEO, Tom Petersen, says that GCN played a vital role in shaping PMMI's business culture and ultimate goals. GCN and our scriptural foundations for business inspired him to develop products and services that benefit communities and underserved populations. 

Laurie Garrett, a Senior Fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations, has worked with Petersen to turn the initial MMC idea into a cost-effective, practical solution for offering basic health care services without the high cost and time required to build brick-and-mortar clinics.

Working with Dr. Edith Clarke, a leading physician in Ghana, as well as other African doctors at Mayo Clinic and in Africa, Petersen last year set up multiple MMCs in the heart of Ghana’s bustling capital, Accra. Immediately, the five mobile clinics positioned strategically together gave health-care access to thousands of men and women, right in the industrial complex where they work.

For more information about how to help fund this initiative, write to: 

glenn@globalcommercenetwork.com