HEALTH
Learn about our health activities
At Fundación Carlos Slim we are contributing to the transformation of health services in Mexico, with avant-garde models and development, based on Digital Health. Our health programs are aimed at generating solutions that help solve the problems of the most unprotected populations in Latin America and other parts of the world, so that more people live longer and better.
Why do we do it?
- Because we want Mexico to be a country of healthy people, regardless of their economic, social or gender condition.
- Because health is essential and effective and quality access must be guaranteed for all people.
- Because we want to close the gap in health to achieve a Mexico where people live longer and better.
DIGITAL HEALTH
It is the catalyst for the transformation of health systems, in order to improve access and effective coverage to quality, efficient and humane health services that improve people's lives.
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Chronic Disease Program
Digital Health in the Prevention and Care of Chronic Diseases
Given the accelerated increase in the number of cases of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and chronic kidney disease that have been reported in recent decades, the Carlos Slim Foundation has developed a health model, which operates in a digital environment, to change the care paradigm and catalyze the transformation of the health system from a reactive and depersonalized approach to a proactive and personalized approach that is capable of combating and reducing the burden that chronic diseases represent in our country.
The Chronic Disease Prevention and Care program is based on Comprehensive Integrated Measurement for Timely Detection (MIDO), a digital health strategy that has as its principle the Carlos Slim Foundation's personalized public health model based on the 6 Ps.
Proactive
Intentional search for people in the community and in the health unit
Through the MIDO Integral digital health strategy, a way was designed to intentionally and pragmatically search for factors that increase the risk of developing obesity, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia and chronic kidney disease in the population.
Timely detection is achieved through a simplified medical check-up, in which a questionnaire is applied aimed at the individual's background, behaviors and habits, which is complemented by measurements focused on their physical, metabolic and chemical parameters.
The assessment is completed in a matter of minutes and can be carried out in community and hospital settings.
Custom
Construction of risk and health profiles considering each person
MIDO Integral calculates the risk that each individual has of developing chronic diseases throughout the different stages of their life:
- MIDO Pregnancy
- MIDO Early childhood
- MIDO Boys, Girls and Adolescents
- MIDO Adults
Knowing the risk profile allows us to develop an individualized plan to establish habits and therapeutic schemes that adapt to the characteristics and needs of each person.
Predictive
Anticipation of risks based on behavior, determinants and health status
Slim Initiative in Genomic Medicine - Carlos Slim Foundation, the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT developed a genomic medicine initiative to study the behavior of diabetes, kidney disease and certain types of cancer in the Latin American population.
Genomic chip - Carlos Slim Foundation and its allies developed a genomic chip that allows estimating the probability that a person has of developing type 2 diabetes.
MIDO Integral – Through a predictive model that, based on family history, environmental, genetic, phenotypic, metabolic and social characteristics obtained in each assessment, estimates the risk that each person has of developing type 2 diabetes.
Preventive
Individualized intervention to prevent or delay the onset of the disease
MIDO Integral - Integrates scientific knowledge and technological developments to create 21 risk profiles, which allow the development of treatment plans that delay or reverse the progress of chronic diseases that condition people's quality of life and increase their morbidity and mortality.
Progress
Monitoring and evolution of health status
MIDO Integral schedules appointments periodically to monitor the health status of each individual. When a patient is diagnosed with overweight, prediabetes or prehypertension, it establishes the frequency with which he or she must attend the reassessment; while, if you are diagnosed with obesity, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia or chronic kidney disease, you are referred to your health unit.
Participative
Awareness about the state of health and empowerment of the person
Through applications, interactive tools and educational platforms, the Chronic Diseases Program promotes people's self-care to prevent diseases and adopt healthy lifestyles:
Results
Nearly 2.5 million people in the 32 states of the Mexican Republic have been assessed.
MIDO Integral operates in bus stations, metro stations, shopping malls and first contact health centers.
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Maternal and newborn health
Digital Health in Maternal and Child Care
Maternal and child health is an essential component of human development, in which the care and habits acquired before, during and after pregnancy significantly influence the quality and life expectancy of the population.
Therefore, given the increase in cases of obstetric and perinatal diseases, Fundación Carlos Slim has developed and implemented a health model, which operates in a digital environment, to change the paradigm of care and catalyze the transformation of the health system, from a reactive and depersonalized approach towards a proactive and personalized approach that is capable of combating and reducing the burden that these conditions and illnesses represent in our country.
The Maternal and Child Health Program is based on the Carlos Slim Foundation's personalized public health model supported by the 6 Ps.
Proactive
Intentional search for people in the community and in the health unit
Integrated Measurement for Early Detection (MIDO) Pregnancy - It is a digital health strategy that was designed to proactively and pragmatically search for the presence or absence of five conditions that frequently put pregnancy at risk: inadequate weight gain, diabetes pregestational and gestational, hypertensive disorders associated with pregnancy, urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted infections in the population of responsibility.
MIDO Early Childhood - Focuses on measuring and monitoring the growth and development of boys and girls under 5 years of age, both premature and full-term; It allows you to identify risks in a timely manner and issue specific recommendations according to the nutritional and developmental status of girls and boys.
Custom
Construction of the risk and health profile considering the personal context
MIDO Pregnancy and MIDO Early Childhood have intelligent algorithms that calculate the risk that each individual has of developing alterations and diseases throughout pregnancy and childhood. This allows the development of an individualized plan to establish preventive strategies and therapeutic schemes that adapt to the characteristics and needs of each person according to their health profile or risks detected in each assessment. They also issue personalized recommendations that a health professional uses and communicates as part of the medical assessment or consultation.
Predictive
Anticipation of risks based on behavior, determinants and health status
Carlos Slim Foundation has developed a novel digital health solution, which represents the first predictive model of Gestational Diabetes for pregnant Mexican women that is accurate from the first weeks of gestation.
This model allows us to establish the risk of developing this condition in the early stages of pregnancy and promote personalized preventive actions and appropriate treatment in a timely manner.
Preventive
Individualized intervention to prevent or delay the onset of the disease
MIDO Pregnancy and MIDO Early Childhood are digital ecosystems that are focused on the culture of preventing disorders and diseases that compromise the health and well-being of women, girls and boys.
Therefore, through the Simplified Oral Glucose Tolerance Curve, a public health innovation developed by the Carlos Slim Foundation, gestational diabetes can be detected in a simple, timely and economical way, in low-resource settings, where it is often not possible. this disease is diagnosed
Progress
Monitoring and evolution of health status
Virtual pregnancy monitoring – The possibility of monitoring certain aspects of a patient's health from their own home has become one of the most important benefits of digital health to ensure adequate surveillance and monitoring of people's health status.
Carlos Slim Foundation takes advantage of this technological capacity to close the gaps that exist between pregnant women and health professionals, using different digital platforms to guide, raise awareness and monitor specific conditions during pregnancy.
To achieve this, a virtual pregnancy monitoring unit has been created that complements the traditional care model to maximize its benefits and improve its results.
Participatory
Awareness about the state of health and empowerment of the person
Through applications, interactive tools and educational platforms, the Maternal and Child Health Program promotes people's self-care to prevent diseases and adopt healthy lifestyles:
Results
Currently, MIDO Pregnancy and MIDO Early Childhood operates in metro stations, shopping malls and first contact health units.
More than 50 thousand pregnant women evaluated in 10 states of the Mexican Republic.
More than 7 thousand girls and boys under five years old valued in 5 states of the Mexican Republic.
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Vaccination Digital Health Ecosystem
We developed the Vaccination Digital Health Ecosystem, an innovative solution based on digital health, for the adequate follow-up of vaccination actions along the life span.
The Vaccination Digital Health Ecosystem concentrates information in a single database which facilitates the timely follow up of vaccination schedules; as well as keeping an interaction with the vaccinator, both in the public and private sectors, ensuring that all the involved parties have the same information on individual vaccination records.
The use of the Ecosystem has been implemented in various states and institutions in the country with successful results, offering an innovative experience for both users and health care personnel.
Results
3'033,002 people following up their vaccination schedules
1,922 healthcare centers in 5 states at 3 institutions: IMSS Ordinario, IMSS Bienestar and the Ministry of Health
41'661,039 vaccines registered
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Addictions
Based on the paradigm that Digital Health represents, and as a catalyst for the transformation of health services to improve access and effective coverage, Carlos Slim Foundation has developed a model providing an innovative approach to treat drug/alcohol addiction.
Our organization is dedicated to addiction prevention, working in partnership with a network of 120 care units of Youth Integration Centers (CIJ), UNAM and other institutions. Our approach includes
- Conducting training and workshops for high risk groups.
- Offering scholarships for doctors who want to work in the area of addictions as part of their social service.
- Providing continuing education for healthcare professionals through online courses, that focus on specialties related to addiction.
Our goal is to improve the quality of care for people who struggle with drug addiction.We collaborate with CIJ to offer specialized care, based on clinical diagnoses and treatment profiles, as well as personalized follow-ups.
We also work with the CIJ 3.0 digital platform, developed by Carlos Slim Foundation, to develop prediction models for the treatment of potential consumers, based on the information recorded in the platform.
INTERVENTIONS IN VULNERABLE GROUPS
Organ Donation and Transplants Culture
This comprehensive program supported by Carlos Slim Foundation and Inbursa Foundation, works through a model that considers the following elements: promotea culture of organ donation with Heroes for Life campaign; foster organ procurement and high performance of organ transplants in public hospitals; provide scholarships to train medical interns to perform their social service, and scholarships for health professionals to specialize in transplant surgery and post-transplant patient follow-up.
Results
We have supported 10,630 transplant surgeries and 1,017 organ procurements. 454 medical interns received scholarships to perform their social service in organ donation, procurement and transplants. 39 health care professionals received support to specialize in surgery and post-transplant follow-up.
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Palliative Care
We work through a comprehensive care model based on three pillars aiming to improve palliative care in the country.
- Strengthening of palliative care services in hospital environments through the training of health care professionals.
- Scholarships for doctors and psychologists who strive to work in the area of palliative care as part of their social service.
- We promote house calls through civil society organizations to provide medical, psychological and thanatological care for patients, as well as training for family members on how to care for their loved ones and manage symptoms, with a focus on pain relief, as a primary goal.
Results
1,900 trained health care professionals
138 medical and psychology interns with scholarships to perform their social service in palliative care
629 patients and their families supported at terminal stage.
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Extramural Surgeries
It is a program that provides highly specialized medical care to the marginalized population of our country. The pediatric, testicular cord cysts, lymphangiomas and lipomas surgeries stand out; as well as the surgeries of hands and feet due to deformities; cleft lip and palate reconstructive procedures; interventions for burn sequelae, and cataracts in adult patients. The program started in collaboration with the Mexican Academy of Surgery, and today is implemented in coordination with the Ministry of Health and other specialized organizations.
Hearing Aids
This program supports people of scarce resources from all ages, with different degrees of hearing impairment, to improve their quality of life. This support works under the peso-by-peso scheme with state DIF’s branches throughout the country.
Wheelchairs
In alliance with the state DIFs (Comprehensive Development System for the Family-Sistema para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia), through a peso-by-peso scheme, Telmex Telcel Foundation provides wheelchairs for people of scarce resources with mobility impairments.
Diet and Nutrition
ATOLE HIM-MAÍZ
In alliance with the Children’s Hospital of Mexico, a formula to satisfy the nutritional requirements of pregnant and lactating mothers, as well as children up to five years of age, was developed.
This formula served as basis for the nutritional component of Progresa (later Prospera), benefiting pregnant women and children younger than 5 years old from more than 6.2 million families that participated in the program.
NUTRITIOUS CANDY
These candies enhanced with iron and zinc, among other nutrients, help supplementing the diet of pregnant women, children and elderly people living in underserved communities, mainly rural areas.
Results
17'361,152 1 kg-bags of nutritious candy were delivered.
GLOBAL HEALTH
Mesoamerica Health
The Mesoamerica Health Initiative (ISM) is a public-private partnership established in 2011, between Carlos Slim Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the governments of Spain and Canada, and the Inter-American Development Bank (BID). We work in collaboration with the governments of the region: Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize and the state of Chiapas in Mexico. The initiative aims to improve the access to quality health care services for 20% of the region’s most underserved population, representing 1.8 million women and children.
The activities have been focused on the following topics:
- Maternal health: our goal is to improve access and quality of maternal health care and services for mothers and their newborns.
- Child nutrition: we take action to combat chronic anemia by supplying micronutrients and promoting zinc consumption to control diarrhea.
- Vaccination: we promote measles vaccination for children under 5 years old, to ensure their health and well-being.
Regional Initiative for the Elimination of Malaria in Mesoamerica
Affecting almost half of the world’s population, Malaria is a parasitic disease, which is transmitted to humans by mosquito bites. Based on the positive results of the Mesoamerica Health Initiative, Carlos Slim Foundation joins the efforts to eliminate this disease in Central America, Colombia and Dominican Republic.
With actions such as timely diagnosis, treatments and implementation of mosquito control measures, including mosquito nets and elimination of breeding sites, this initiative aims to eliminate the disease from the region within the next few years.
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Onchocerciasis Elimination
Onchocerciasis or “river blindness”, is a parasitic disease which is transmitted to humans by black flies, and is one of the main causes of infectious blindness in different regions of the world.
We joined the Carter Center and the Onchocerciasis Elimination in the Americas’ Program to promote the elimination of the disease in the American Continent.
Results
We contributed to the elimination of Onchocerciasis in Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico
Today we work in the Yanomami zone, the border between Brazil and Venezuela, where more than 30 thousand people-at-risk live.
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Elimination of HIV Mother-to-child (RED)
From 2011, together with America Móvil, we joined RED, initiative of the World Forum to promote the fight against the transmission of HIV and AIDs Mother-to-Child, thereby reducing the number of newborns with this disease in the world, one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Results
The actions of the Global Fund RED initiative have contributed to lower the number of births with HIV in the world from 1,100 per day in 2012, to 400 at present.
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Polio Eradication
The Global Initiative for Polio Eradication is a public-private partnership led by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and various organizations to fight for the global eradication of polio. These efforts are focused on strengthening the vaccination program against polio worldwide and the interruption of the virus transmission. In 1988, more than one thousand children were falling ill with polio on a daily basis; today, fewer than 50 cases occur annually worldwide.
Results
We provided resources for 702 million doses of the vaccine, which were administered to children in 37 countries.
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PREVENTION AND SELF-CARE
CLIKISalud
CLIKISalud offers, free of charge, various materials and resources, among them:
- Your Health manuals, educational guidelines that provide healthcare recommendations for lives different stages.
- Audiovisual productions that, in everyday language, provide information on areas such as diabetes, obesity, addictions, mental health and vaccination.
- Health calculators, a series of online tools allowing people to learn about their health status from anywhere in a fast, simple and intuitive way.
- Mobile applications or apps, allowing people to have daily access to interactive programs that will help them stay healthy, or manage their health condition to improve their quality of life.
Results
More than 12 million visits per year
More than 41 million video reproductions in the last seven years
A community of more than 735 thousand followers on social media
Collection of more than 14,300 publications
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My Comprehensive Health App
The Carlos Slim Foundation has developed a mobile application called “My Comprehensive Health” for individuals who want to improve their physical and mental well-being, adapt to their environment, and perform better in their daily lives. The app offers personalized physical activity plans, access to healthy eating recipes, a digital logbook to track everyday emotions, and interactive tools to monitor health status.
My Comprehensive Health is fully integrated with the comprehensive MIDO digital platform, making it an effective tool for maintaining continuity of care between the health professionals and patients.
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Aprende Salud
Carlos Slim Foundation, in line with global online education and training trends, has a digital health learning site within Aprende.org platform, with the goal of offering practical courses on an asynchronous and flexible way, for health care professionals and the general public- The courses are free of charge.
The users of Aprende Salud can access valuable courses about specific topics like maternal and perinatal health, chronic diseases, immunology and palliative care, among others.
These courses have didactic resources such as videos, info-graphics and exams to validate learning.
Results
6 courses for the general public with 13'492,541 entries
9 courses for health care professionals with 486,017 enrollments
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RESEARCH
Slim Initiative in Genomic Medicine
The Slim Initiative in Genomic Medicine has been a catalyst of genomic knowledge on Mexico’s population. The work has been concentrated into three areas: diabetes, cancer and kidney disease. In this partnership between the Carlos Slim Foundation, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, it has been possible to identify gens, variants and specific mutations associated with each of these diseases; and to establish the basis for the development of therapies. In this process, we have trained Mexican researchers, coming from several national institutions.
Results
Discovery of thousands of gens and variants associated with the development of diabetes, some types of cancer and kidney disease.
Diagnostic chips have been developed to detect diabetes, gestational diabetes and genomic alterations during pregnancy in the Mexican population.
56 scientific publications in magazines such as Nature and Science
Support was given to 35 Mexican researchers to receive scientific training at the Broad Institute
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Vaccine Against Chagas Disease
Chagas disease is caused by a parasite that affects more than 7 million people in the world, mainly in high poverty areas. The parasite can affect the functioning of the heart, leading to disability and even death.
Treatments for the disease exist, but with a number of significant limitations, such as secondary effects and very specific, hard to follow application times, which lessen their effect.
Carlos Slim Foundation works with national and international academic institutions such as CINVESTAV, The Autonomous University of Yucatan and Baylor College of Medicine of Texas, in the development of a therapeutic vaccine for people infected with the parasite. The vaccine is expected to be available in few years, for the benefit of millions of people in Latin America.
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AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
Carlos Slim Health Awards
Since 2008 we have recognized non-profit organizations and health professionals whose work has made an impact on improving the health of Latin America’s population. The Awards are given in two categories: Research Career and Exceptional Institution.
Resultados
We have granted 37 awards of 100,000 dollars to institutions and researchers from 12 countries in Latin America
Health Scholarships
The training of young researchers and health care professionals is one of our priorities in the area of health services. In alliance with the Medicine and Psychology schools of UNAM, as well as other public universities, we granted scholarships to interns seeking to perform their social service in the areas of palliative care, organ transplants and addictions. Awardees have to follow an academic diploma for their specific area.
We support young people at the National Institutes of Health through the Promotion of Health Research scholarships, so they can develop research projects that contribute to their training, as well as to obtain further knowledge in various health specialty areas.
For organ transplants and palliative care, we support the training of health care personnel such as surgeons, nurses, nephrologists and anesthesiologists to undertake 1 or 2-year specialty programs.
Results
974 scholarships for research promotion
857 social service scholarships
39 specialty scholarships
