Our Story

Barry in the fieldTHINKMD began with a simple idea.

During Dr. Barry Finette’s work in low and middle income countries, he was commonly the first physician a patient would have seen in their lives. Working in humanitarian settings and with both rural and urban populations, he saw the lack of access to even basic primary healthcare services and the devastating effect on health outcomes, in particular increased premature death and morbidity. In 2019, it was estimated that 5.2 million children under the age of five died mostly from preventable and treatable causes. Every single day, 810 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.

Barry also noticed that regardless of where he worked, he saw mobile phones in the hands of almost everyone. Despite modest incomes, connectivity and information were being prioritized.

Returning to the US, Barry began asking the question:

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“What if I could replicate the way that I, with years of training and experience, conduct a high quality, clinical assessment through mobile technology so that anyone with access to a mobile device could do the same? If untrained users could accurately identify illness and risk and what next steps to take, how much preventable death and suffering would that prevent?”
– Dr. Barry Finette, THINKMD co-founder
Dr Barry Finette and Dr Barry Heath

THINKMD was founded.

Founders Dr. Barry Finette and Dr. Barry Heath, physicians from the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, spent three years developing simple-to-use technology with back-end “physician-based” clinical intelligence algorithms that could be used by almost anyone. The technology was tested in field-based trials with 1,000 children in 4 countries, on 3 continents with scientifically-validated correlation rates between 80-95% to that of a physician.

Since 2014, THINKMD’s solution has been implemented in 10 countries with various partners, including Save the Children, Healthy Learners, Integrate Health, Alight and eHA Clinics, with support from organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Mulago Foundation, UBS Optimus Foundation, and others.

Our team includes clinicians, engineers, data scientists and global health specialists, all with a passion for solving challenges in healthcare by placing patients and technology users at the center of the paradigm.

Better decisions. Better data. Better health.

Learn more from THINKMD Co-Founder, Dr. Barry Finette.

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