Open-source tools for community-based healthcare delivery.
Photo credit: Medic / medic.org
Medic is a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit that designs and supports open-source software for community health workers. Isaac Holeman and Josh Nesbit founded the organization as Medic Mobile in 2010 after using FrontlineSMS to coordinate care at St Gabriel’s Hospital in Malawi. Medic is now led by co-executive directors Shreya Bhatt and Andra Blaj, with a U.S. office in San Francisco and hubs in Nairobi and Kathmandu.
The organization is the technical steward of the Community Health Toolkit, an open-source platform for household registration, disease identification, pregnancy monitoring, follow-up of at-risk cases, and health-worker supervision. Ministries, NGOs, and other partners can implement the toolkit themselves while Medic maintains core software, documentation, and technical support.
Medic began exploring AI applications for the platform in 2025 while continuing to develop its broader Community of Practice. Medic Afya, launched that year as a Kenyan public-benefit organization, is an independent implementation hub rather than a Medic subsidiary.
Medic’s model centers on extending health-system reach through community health workers. Offline-capable workflows can help workers register households, screen for danger signs, track pregnancies, and coordinate follow-up in places where patients may have limited access to clinics. Open-source stewardship gives implementing organizations more control over deployments and reduces dependence on a closed software vendor.
Medic measures scale primarily through use of the Community Health Toolkit across workers, households, and countries. Those adoption figures describe infrastructure and potential care coverage, not uniform clinical results. Outcomes such as lives saved, completed treatments, or improved maternal health depend on each implementing health system, its workforce, and the quality of local service delivery.
Medic’s 2025 annual report states that the Community Health Toolkit supported 182,636 community health workers across 24 countries and reached an estimated 90 million people by year-end. Its website also cites 12.1 million registered households, and the organization reported 262 new Community of Practice members in 2025.
Medic describes a team of more than 60 people across over 11 countries. These are organization-reported adoption and reach estimates, not independently verified clinical outcomes; older monthly household-visit figures reflect an earlier, smaller deployment footprint.
Purpose-built for frontline care
The toolkit supports household registration, disease screening, pregnancy monitoring, case follow-up, and community health-worker supervision.
Open and locally implementable
Partners can manage their own deployments while Medic maintains the core platform, documentation, and shared technical infrastructure.
Designed for hard-to-reach settings
Offline-capable workflows help community health workers coordinate care where connectivity and access to clinics are limited.
Shared implementation community
The Community of Practice connects organizations using the toolkit, while independent Medic Afya expands locally led implementation in Kenya.
Focus areas
Locations
