Krishnamurthy "Gopi" Gopalakrishnan
Gopi Gopalakrishnan has over two decades of experience in implementing large-scale service-delivery programs in low-resource settings. He has founded two large organizations—World Health Partners which focuses on delivering primary health care to rural communities by innovatively harnessing existing resources in the poorest states of India and Kenya; Janani which delivers reproductive health services in Bihar and Jharkhand, two of the poorest states of India. Gopi’s work relates to operationalizing public–private partnerships in which private sector resources are tailored to complement public sector service provision. Increasingly, his recent work has devoted attention to integrate stronger management systems and technologies into public sector programming.
Gopi has been a member of India’s Population Commission and has advised the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and numerous national and international organizations on large-scale cost-effective service delivery. He has served on the global technical advisory board of the International Finance Corporation, an affiliate of the World Bank, and is currently a member of the Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA) of the National Health Mission.
During his career, Gopi also worked as the Director of International Programs of DKT International based in Washington DC and as Country Director of DKT Vietnam based in Hanoi. He has been awarded by the Skoll Foundation, the Schwab (World Economic Forum) Foundation and Ashoka Foundation for social entrepreneurship, and is the recipient of a prestigious civilian honor from the Government of Vietnam.
- Visit their website
- World Health Partners
- Model
- Non-profit Social Enterprise
- Sectors
- Global Health
- Headquarters
- India
- Areas of Impact
- South Asia, Africa, India, Kenya
World Health Partners
World Health Partners (WHP) believes that a sustainable healthcare system must ensure two foundational elements: prevent the onset of illnesses and ensure simple illnesses don’t get serious. A system that efficiently delivers preventive and primary healthcare close to clients is the tool that will make this possible. By adopting triaging principles, secondary and tertiary care become a logical extension of this approach.
WHP is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing healthcare within walkable distance to underserved communities. WHP harnesses already existing resources in every sector without ideological constraints. It uses management systems and technologies to fashion them into an effective service delivery channel.
In India, WHP operates in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Gujarat, with core competencies in providing services for maternal and child health, infectious disease (TB), and remote patient consultations with a focus on: engaging private sector providers for high-quality service delivery; using ICT-enabled services for real-time data integration; and community engagement with capacity building for active patient management. WHP has over 12,000 Sky Centers – WHP's technology-enabled centres based in rural villages – run by local entrepreneurs that administer care to those most in need and are located in the remotest areas of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. These are two of the largest and poorest states in India, with a combined population of over 300 million. On the backend, WHP runs a call centre that is useful for cases that require aggressive follow-up over long periods, such as tuberculosis treatment or antenatal care. Based in Patna, it handles case registrations, product placement, reimbursement of claims, client satisfaction probes, and alerts. In Kenya, WHP operates its own chain of tele-linked medical units, Maisha clinics, where trained nurses provide reproductive, maternal and child health services to rural and peri-urban communities.
WHP's model has been recognized with awards from the Skoll Foundation, Ashoka Foundation, and Asian Award for Social Entrepreneurship. Its work is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Merck for Mothers, WISH Foundation, Government of India, USAID, and Johnson and Johnson.
awardees
Our awardees
Maria Cavalcanti
Chris LeGrand
