Book excerpt: One of the cornerstones of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) initiative is access to essential medicines andhealth technologies. Medical devices assistive devices and eHealth solutions are important components ofhealth technology which have the potential to save lives and improve quality of life and well-being. However too many people worldwide suffer because they don't have access to high quality affordable health technologywith the problem being more acute in low- and middle-income countries. the objective of the compendium series of innovative medical devices assistive devices and eHealth solutionsis to provide a neutral platform for technologies which are likely to be suitable for use in less resourcedsettings. It presents a snapshot of several health technologies which might have the potential to improvehealth outcomes and the quality of life or to offer a solution to an unmet medical/health technology need.It is released to acknowledge some success stories and at the same time to raise awareness of the pressingneed for appropriate and affordable design solutions and to encourage more innovative efforts in the field. This effort also aims to encourage greater interaction among ministries of health procurement officers donors technology developers manufacturers clinicians academics and the general public to ensure greaterinvestment in health technology and to move towards universal access to essential health technologies. All submissions to the 'Call for innovative health technologies for low-resource settings' underwent anevaluation process; technologies were assessed by an expert panel based on the material and evidenceprovided by the applicant as well as publicly available information. in 2013 unlike previous years inclusion inthe Compendium for medical devices was restricted to commercialized products with regulatory approval.Note that for a selected technology the inclusion in the compendium does not constitute a warranty forfitness of the technology for a particular purpose. All innovative solutions in the compendium are presented in one page summarizing the health problemaddressed the proposed solution and product specifications based on data information and images providedby the developers of the technologies concerned.