Harvard Doctor Of Indian Origin Wins $1MM Dollars To Build An Army Of Health Workers. Wow!

When you feel extremely passionate toward a cause, only then you’d know how hard it is to come up with an exceptional idea to revolutionise it and to make people believe in you. Something similar happened with Dr. Rajesh Ramesh Panjabi, a 36-year-old Liberian-American of Indian origin.

Working in the healthcare sector for close to a decade, Mr. Raj Panjabi, a Harvard Medical School physician has just won a $1 million (Rs 10 lakhs) TED Prize for an idea, which will be used to build an army of paid community healthcare workers.

The prize is given each year at the TED conference and it was given to him at the TED conference in Vancouver, Canada this year. The whole concept is to take people’s “big wish” and turn it into a reality.

 

 

The award-winning concept is called ‘Community Health Academy’. While talking to Business Insider, Panjabi mentions how he wishes to,

 

So the next Ebola outbreak or a deathly viral disease can be detected and nipped in the bud. This will not only help in making healthcare accessible to people in remote areas and in reducing unnecessary deaths from treatable diseases, but it will also help in preventing potential future pandemics.

 

Panjabi was born to Indian immigrants who later migrated to West Africa and he was raised in Monrovia, Liberia. But after civil war broke there when he was nine years old, his family like others fled to North Carolina.

 

But, Panjabi returned to Liberia in 2005, this time as a medical student, only to learn that there was a huge shortage of doctors. There were just 51 doctors to cater to a population of 4 million.

“I believe no one should have to die in the 21st century from lack of access to a doctor or a clinic.”

Panjabi wishes to use the prize money to start online training courses for community healthcare workers around the world, especially in countries that are in dire need of it.

Now, that some inspiration right there. Kudos!

H/T: Business Insider