Friends for Medicine, Israel's largest organization for medication accessibility, has recently achieved an important milestone in community service by improving the processes of medication donation and collection through a new dedicated app, dubbed the “Get Taxi of the Medication World.” Developed for Friends for Medicine by volunteers from Code for Israel, the app's primary goal is to simplify the technical logistics of the donation process.
The app features a marked map indicating the nearest center where surplus medications can be donated. Furthermore, when the app identifies a donation involving an expensive or rare medication, it prioritizes the collection of that medication. “Thanks to this technological advancement,” the organization reports, “there has been a significant increase in requests for donations due to the efficiency in processing the received information.”
Code for Israel: The Local Tech Industry Steps Up
Code for Israel is one of the most exciting and effective initiatives during this period, comprising hundreds of volunteers from the local tech sector who have mobilized to leverage technology and the unique human capital of the “Startup Nation” to provide technological solutions to various issues supporting society and the community—amid the ongoing war.
In fact, Code for Israel was initially established to bridge the gap between the tech industry and social and public spheres. In recent years, hundreds of movement volunteers have participated in intriguing and vital social projects, harnessing technological advancements and the uniqueness of the startup nation to assist and streamline the social sector in Israel. In the past year, since the onset of the war, thousands of nonprofits in Israel have required maximum activity (often with minimal manpower). This is where the organization “Code for Israel” steps in with projects aimed at optimizing and leveraging the operations of these nonprofits, both in routine and especially in emergencies.
Code for Israel is made up of a community of over a thousand volunteers from fields such as data, software, product development, information systems, and entrepreneurship. Typically, the organization focuses on developing and implementing technological solutions for social organizations in Israel to increase social impact and harness the capabilities of tech to streamline these organizations’ processes. During the war, efforts were redirected to assist nonprofits and initiatives in emergency response—providing technological support for the establishment of various interfaces from scratch alongside the implementation or development of technological solutions to enhance the quantity and quality of care, allowing organizations to focus on the sacred work they do. Among the numerous projects that “Code for Israel” has handled, several organizations required specific adjustments related to the war and its consequences, such as implementing management systems and scheduling tools for nonprofits providing psychological support and assistance to victims.
Among experts in shared economy, Israel is considered a global trailblazer in the field of medication sharing. Regulations in this sensitive area in the Western world are highly complex, and the ability of stakeholders in Israel to find mechanisms allowing for the transfer of medications from hand to hand has led to optimal utilization of tens of millions of shekels. These amounts have already been paid by someone else—patients, health funds, or insurance companies—and without the regulatory adjustment, they would have been “thrown in the trash,” going to waste along with the medications. In this context, the work of the Friends for Medicine organization serves as a fascinating and unique model in the world of the sharing economy: balancing the desire to maintain a proper and safe supply chain for medications against the need to care for patients who cannot afford essential medications—Israeli lawmakers have found a way to be flexible while minimizing potential damage to the quality of medications distributed to patients.
In the shared economy model, the economy is based on principles of recycling raw materials, maximizing value from existing resources, and minimizing waste while extending these principles to the social realm. Another element of this model is the use of advanced technology to reduce social gaps through the transfer of surpluses to where they are most needed: online reporting of surplus clothing, furniture, and household items, and transferring them to distribution centers; apps for rescuing food from market stalls just before it is thrown away, and so on. These advanced data collection mechanisms provide an up-to-date snapshot at any given moment regarding surplus and deficit locations, linking them to smart transport methods that promote the community and reduce social disparities. In the realm of medications, patients’ rights are based on economic and logistical accessibility to medications. In this context, the shared economy concept takes accessibility one step further—advocating for collective responsibility for the individual’s right to receive the medications they need. “Friends for Medicine” are doing just that: working to provide citizens with the medications they are entitled to, regardless of their payment capability or geographical location, by establishing a network of hundreds of volunteers to collect surplus medications and distribute them according to demand.
Civic Voice and Digital Health: The Joint Journey with Friends for Medicine
How do we optimize the connection between those with surplus or excess medications and the people who need them most? Addressing this issue represented the primary challenge in the collaboration between Friends for Medicine and Code for Israel. In this project, the challenge faced by the volunteer team was to create a user-friendly and accessible interface to increase donation potential and also to implement a tool for efficiently managing the back office. After thorough characterization, the team developed an app that streamlines the entire donation process conveniently, integrating a Monday CRM system to manage all relevant back office functions. Thanks to the team’s development, the organization no longer needs to handle phone calls to connect donors to the nearest collection point—the app automatically facilitates the “matching” based on location detection. Combined with Monday’s system, the platform provides a comprehensive solution connecting donation with need, ensuring that required medications reach the right hands, intact.
Baruch Liberman, CEO of Friends for Medicine, stated, “Every year, medications worth tens of millions of shekels are thrown away due to lack of use, while there are people who need them. The app developed is tailored perfectly to the organization’s needs, providing us with an extraordinarily efficient toolbox. The software is user-friendly and allows us to handle many more donations and inquiries, treat hundreds of new patients, and receive significantly more medications. Through this exciting collaboration, our vision is becoming a reality: a technological development that expands the organization’s impact and improves the availability and effectiveness of its services. Or in other words: a technological development that saves lives.” Liberman further adds, “Since the onset of the war, the organization has faced unusual demands for medical equipment and medications, as tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes and need assistance in these areas as well. The joint project with Code for Israel, which began almost a year ago, has accelerated in light of the situation and has gone live. The dedicated app that streamlines the entire medication donation process with a quick ‘two clicks’ allows those who wish to donate surplus medications to do so easily and conveniently, directing them to one of the organization’s collection points across the country or connecting them with the organization’s team after gathering all the information about the medications from the donors.”