I just got an email from our friends at Ashoka announcing the launch, just two days ago, of a venture that promises to disrupt and transform rural healthcare in India. Led by NextBillion co-founder and The Next 4 Billion lead author Al Hammond, the E Health Points are joint venture of Ashoka, the Naandi Foundation, the Government of the State of Punjab and and Healthpoint Services India Pvt. Ltd.

It's very exciting to hear about this launch and see the pictures of it in action. I've had the opportunity to work in and out with Al Hammond over the last 18 months and in several of our conversations this project was a dominant theme. His vision of bringing together technological and business model innovations to produce a disruptive new model for healthcare services in rural areas is now a reality. I'm already looking forward to hearing about the launch and the prospects of this venture in his own words. I'm sure he'll be looking forward to sharing these through NextBillion as well, so stay tuned.

For now, I want to extend my congratulations and best wishes to Al and the team that has led the charge in launching this pilot. If you wish to learn more about this project and its various components, I encourage you to read Al's earlier posts related to eHealth, the future of healthcare and community scale water treatment facilities. I also urge you to read the complete press release and take a look at the Flickr slideshow.