Doc-in-a-Box springs open

Turning the ubiquitous shipping container into a mobile clinic.

Helen Pearson

Architects and a public health expert have unveiled a new solution to some of the world's ills: Doc-in-a-Box. The mass-produced medical clinics, housed in empty shipping containers, could help bring vital healthcare to needy communities.

Thousands of discarded shipping containers clog up ports around the globe because it is too expensive for companies to send them back. The tough, steel boxes are a standard size designed to travel on ships and trucks everywhere.

Former journalist turned global health advocate Laurie Garrett, a fellow at New York's Council on Foreign Relations, saw a recycling opportunity. Around two years ago she came up with the idea of converting the containers into mobile medical centres that could be mass-produced cheaply and transported around the world.