At the onset of the second wave of Covid-19 in 2021, testing centres struggled to cope with the onslaught of a high incidence of infections, and diagnosis. In some cases, laboratories were testing at 300% of their capacity, and shortages of personnel and testing equipment was affecting turnaround times.

This film captures the experience of experts at FIND India and their colleagues at the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute in Faridabad at a time when systems were facing severe strain. Through the collaboration between The Global Fund and FIND on driving the Access to Covid-19 Tests Accelerator (ACT Accelerator) process, equitable access to testing was scaled at pace. This was achieved through the donation of two types of essential pieces of medical equipment: RNA extractors and automated RTPCR machines, which enabled a greatly increased capacity for the THSTI.

Today, only half the world has access to the diagnostics that are essential to receiving adequate universal health coverage.

To highlight the issue of barriers to access on Universal Health Coverage Day and reinforce the point that access to healthcare should be free to all, FIND required a short film that could get its message across.

With that brief in hand, we created a short animated film that made use of easy-to-understand graphics and text to clearly communicate the need for access for all.

Diagnostics are essential when it comes to improving the lives and health of populations. In this film we follow the story of Subash, a young man from Manipur, India whose Hepatitis C diagnosis helped him turn his life around. 

Subash is a beneficiary of CoNE, a program that helps people with addiction get screened for Hepatitis C. Once Hep C is detected, beneficiaries are offered treatment and help to overcome addiction. The success of this program lies in the fact that volunteers and and professionals working in the program are former addicts themselves, and treat all beneficiaries with the respect and humanity they deserve.

FIND works with local organisations in Manipur to provide diagnostics in hard to reach areas of India. The result is a network of health professionals, volunteers, and community members that have access to faster, and easier method of diagnostic and are able to utilise them to improve the general health of hard to reach populations.

With diagnostics being essential in the delivery of healthcare, gaps in diagnostics prevent people from accessing the care they need. By accelerating access to testing globally in LMICs, FIND is closing these diagnostic gaps and transforming the lives of millions of people.

This film is a great example of the use of a combination of animation, stock and on-location footage. The result is an impactful short explainer that provides a clear overview of what can be a complex subject.

FIND wanted a call to arms to engage a wide network of stakeholders in their mission to bring equal access to safe and reliable diagnostics around the world. Born out of the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted the inequalities between the haves and have nots, FIND now plays an important role in enabling diagnostics to be available where they’re needed most. With 50% of the world’s population having challenges when accessing diagnostics, the role of the company is critical to providing rapid and accurate diagnosis where it’s needed most.

With a snappy approach to simple graphics and some punchy music this film was created for the annual American Society For Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) event in Seattle in 2022, at which FIND‘s advancements and partnerships in innovation and implementation were showcased to the global audience of tropical and neglected disease experts. It has now become the opening film on their website.

A locally shot film, told by locals, for the wider world and putting the focus on how developments in technology now put diagnosis at your fingertips.  

Innovation is fundamental to achieving elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases and FIND wanted the drivers of this important project to tell their own story. 

With travel restrictions in place we went to our trusted and incredibly hardworking contact, cameraman George Muiruri, who followed a day in the life with the team running this prototype test for schistosomiasis in Kwale, Kenya.

This is a good illustration of how we apply our approach of working with local film crew to make the most of their expertise and knowledge, whilst reducing the environmental footprint that film production has historically been associated with.

When we got the call to make a film about normalising testing for COVID-19 around the world, we leapt to the challenge.

Storyboarding, working with three filming crews (including actors, locations, costume etc..) in India, Estonia and Kenya, the result is ‘Normalise: Behind The Scenes’, which we filmed using a series of sequences to highlight what lives could be like if we all knew our status at any given moment in the day.

As digital transformation extends its impact around the world, innovation in data management means that through diagnostics networks, low and middle-income countries have a chance to make better use of scant resources.

FIND, the Foundation for Innovation in New Diagnostics, have been our pandemic partners – our challenge has been to make the complicated world of diagnostics accessible to all.

Using remote crews to film Zoom-led interviews and working alongside Infinity Communications, we made this film to be shown across the world.