Case Study: Doctors Without Borders (MSF) achieves life-saving innovation and collaboration with IdeaScale

Innovation and Humanitarian Impact | MSF Crowdsourcing Solutions

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) needed a better way to connect its global teams and turn frontline expertise into actionable ideas. While the organization had launched an innovation unit to frame challenges and gather input across offices, it struggled to create strong interaction and collaboration around issues like COVID-19 response and sustainability. In 2017, Doctors Without Borders partnered with IdeaScale and its “Think Up” community to crowdsource ideas more effectively.

With IdeaScale, Doctors Without Borders used idea capture, voting, and collaboration tools to run innovation campaigns, review proposals, and advance the strongest concepts into pilots or proof-of-concepts. The approach produced measurable impact, including an educational game app adapted from Ebola to COVID-19 that earned over a million social media clicks, along with solutions like MSFeCARE and a telehealth system for MDRTB patients. IdeaScale helped Doctors Without Borders scale innovation across the organization and deliver life-saving results.

Doctors Without Borders

Abiy Tamrat

Medical Technologies Coordinator and Innovation Lead