Visionary of the Year leads health startup to new level

For Chase Adam, an entrepreneur bringing tech savvy to philanthropy, there is something about the culture of the city that makes it “the perfect place” for his startup, Watsi.

“One of the things I like most about San Francisco is people are not afraid to think big,” he said in an interview near Watsi’s office in the Mission District. “They’re not afraid to think about how they can build something or start something or create something that will actually change the world, perhaps in a small way or perhaps in a big way.

“And that energy is infectious.”

The origins of his nonprofit endeavor began modestly enough, on a bus in Costa Rica, past the town of Watsi, where a passenger went from row to row begging for spare change for her son’s medical care. Adam instantly began thinking bigger: Why not use technology to connect small donors from around the world with patients who desperately need the help?

The remarkable growth of Watsi into a $1.6 million annual charity, assisting people in 23 countries, was recognized in March when Adam became the second recipient of The Chronicle’s Visionary of the Year award.

“To be completely honest, it was a mix of extreme honor and extreme terror,” said the self-effacing 30-year-old. “To be named Visionary of the Year in a city like San Francisco ... those are really big shoes to fill. In the back of my mind I was thinking: We better find a way to make this really big; we better make it work.”

It has continued to grow, reaching $2.6 million and 10,000 patients in the most recent fiscal year — and Adam has continued to think bigger and bigger. His ultimate goal is to create a model for nations that have little or no formal structures for health-care delivery.

“At Watsi, what we’re trying to do is kind of crazy: Can we collect money from anywhere in the world and actually send it to a clinic in rural Kenya for health care for an individual patient? That’s difficult to do — and it’s only been possible in the last few years with the Internet. Now the question is: Could a government like Rwanda or Uganda or Tanzania or Kenya use the software we’re building to run health care more efficiently and effectively? It’s not about just funding health care; it’s about making people healthy.”

The beauty of the Watsi approach is its simplicity, accountability and transparency. The Watsi crew has developed software that can provide real-time tracking of patient needs, clinic and hospital availability and medical outcomes.

“The special sauce to our due diligence is data collection,” he said. “We collect a lot of data on every single patient, and every single patient interaction ... so much data that fraudulent behavior would stand out as anomalous and suspicious.”

For the donors to Watsi, that means they can choose a patient to support, learn about their background and medical condition, know what service would be delivered with a certain dollar amount, and later find out how the procedure went. Watsi promises that 100 percent of the direct donations for a specified patient go to his or her health care; fundraising for administrative costs is done on a separate track. Recent listings ranged from a Ugandan laborer who needed $249 for hernia repair surgery to a Cambodian rice farmer who needed $292 for vision-restoring cataract surgery.

Yes, the cost differential between those countries and here is truly staggering.

Yet, the lack of sophistication of the developing nations’ medical systems presents an opportunity for technology. They do not have to worry about a transition from a paper-based system to web-based platforms. Adam made the comparison with nations that never had telephone landlines leapfrogging into smartphones.

Obviously, challenges abound. Spotty electrical service, Internet coverage, computer literacy among the workforce.

Still, Adam and his colleagues are optimists and, well, visionaries.

Adam was asked if any of the cases, each so poignant, touched him deepest. He pointed to the plight of a 30-year-old Burmese farmer who had a congenital heart defect that required surgery.

The man had gone into “pretty extreme debt” just to get diagnosed, and had gambled for the first time in his life to try to try to pay for the surgery. Watsi donors contributed $1,500 and, with the boost of other organizations, the operation was performed. It was successful. The patient proudly posed for a photo with the surgical scar, saying, “I never knew there were people so generous that they would fund a stranger’s health care.”

Adam paused.

“That embodies what we’re trying to do at Watsi.”

Only bigger.

John Diaz is The San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial page editor.

Email: jdiaz@sfchronicle.com

Twitter: @JohnDiazChron

The Chronicle’s 3rd annual Visionary of the Year award

Mission statement for VisionSF: “Visionary leaders are paradigm changers — individuals who strive to make the world a better place by employing new, innovative business models and practices. As the world faces an increasing number of widespread social and economic challenges, visionary leaders understand the broad impact of the business community and recognize its potential to drive great change.”

How nominees are selected: A group of prominent Bay Area leaders is selected by The Chronicle to identify visionaries who are making a difference in their respective fields. A nominating committee is being finalized for the 2017 award. Each of the nominees will be profiled in a series of stories, in the newspaper and on SFChronicle.com, beginning in January.

How winner is decided: Chronicle Publisher Jeff Johnson, Editor in Chief Audrey Cooper and Editorial Page Editor John Diaz will select the winner from six finalists. The winner, who will receive a $25,000 grant, will be announced in March.

Past winners: Evan Marwell of Education Superhighway (2015) and Chase Adam of Watsi (2016).

Founding partner: The St. Mary’s College School of Economics and Business Administration.

Presenting sponsor: City National Bank

For more information go to SFChronicle.com/VisionSF