October 2019

October 03, 2019

[2]Prize winner Vishal Phanse shares how his company, Piramal Swasthya, uses telemedicine and community outreach programs to make health care more accessible and available to marginalized populations in India. Photo credit: Sarah McKee/MSH

MSH and USAID Co-Host Celebration of Inclusive Health Access Prize Winners

On September 24, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and MSH recognized the five winners of USAID’s Inclusive Health Access Prize [6]: GIC Med, Infiuss, JokkoSanté, mDoc, and the Piramal Swasthya Management and Research Institute. These private-sector organizations have developed and proven innovative solutions to expand access to lifesaving basic health care in low- and middle-income countries while demonstrating a vision for expanding their approach.

“Locally Leading the Way to UHC: USAID’s Inclusive Health Access Prize,” attended by nearly 200 people in person and online, was held in conjunction with the United Nations General Assembly’s first-ever High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Making the Case for Investing in Community Health Workers [8]

Colin Gilmartin [9]

Health Systems Strengthening [4]

Universal Health Coverage [5]

[8]Community health workers in Madagascar review patient data. Photo Credit: Samy Rakotoniaina/MSH

When community health programs are well-designed, managed, and sufficiently funded, they can yield substantial health and economic benefits. In addition to contributing to a healthier, more productive population, they can reduce the risk of costly epidemics while generating substantial cost savings for families and health systems (1). On the other hand, when poorly designed or managed and insufficiently funded, community health programs can fail to improve poor health outcomes and advance national health priorities.

Recognizing their potential in strengthening primary care and advancing Universal Health Coverage [10], countries are increasingly formalizing the role of the community health worker within their health systems. In fact, many countries have passed national community health policies to ensure that community health workers (CHWs) are well trained, incentivized, and equipped to provide a basic package of life-saving services within their communities.

Community Health Planning and Costing Tool [11]

Addressing Gender Inequality Through Nutrition: Lessons from Malawi [13]

Katherine Wright [14]
Cara Endyke-Doran [15]

Women & Gender [16]

[13]Mother and baby await health services at a health center in Mulanje, Malawi. Photo credit: Samy Rakotoniaina/MSH

This story was originally published by Deliver for Good [17]

Many women are the bedrock of families yet tend to lack access to and control over resources to ensure a diverse and nutritious diet before, during, and after pregnancy. Luckily, gender sensitive nutrition programming that is integrated with MNCH and reproductive health activities can deliver healthier lives for women, their children, and their families.

Violet, a young mother living in Karonga district in central Malawi, delivered her first baby at a community hospital in September. Throughout her pregnancy, she attended six antenatal care (ANC) visits. Her delivery was smooth and without complication, due to her good health and nutrition. Her husband attended her delivery as her guardian.

Fragile States Need Private Sector Allies [19]

Marian W. Wentworth [20]

Fragile States [21]

Universal Health Coverage [5]

[19]A cholera patient recovers at a treatment center in Lilongwe District, Malawi. Photo Credit: Erik Schouten/MSH

This story was originally published by Global Health Now [22]

It was January of 1925, and Nome’s children were dying. Diphtheria had struck the Alaskan town, but the curative serum the local doctor needed was in Nenana, nearly 700 miles away.

Sub-zero temperatures meant that shipping the serum by air was not an option, so the governor turned to sled dog teams, which had delivered mail on that route. Over 5 and 1/2 days, 20 mush teams and their human drivers set up a relay and delivered the lifesaving medicine, a trek known as the “Great Race of Mercy”—now commemorated every year in an event called the Iditarod.

The moral: Get help when you need it, no matter how unorthodox.

We need to employ that strategy in global health development by integrating private sector organizations into our health system solutions more often. They operate where governments cannot and are a rich source of flexibility and innovation. When a country’s government is frozen by conflict, natural disasters, financial crisis, or another crippling event, its health care system is all too likely to follow. Health workers flee or fall victim themselves, and hospitals run out of medicine and go dark. Others must step in to fill the void.

Leading Voices: Daniel Gemechu [24]

Laura Hanson [3]

Health Systems Strengthening [4]

[24]Photo credit: Warren Zelman

Meet Daniel Gemechu, MSH Regional Director for the USAID-funded Challenge TB Project in Ethiopia. MSH has worked in Ethiopia since 2011 to improve the quality of TB care and prevention services. Over the past five years, treatment success rates rose above 90%, with 75% of those suffering from multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) now able to beat the disease after completing their treatment regimens. We asked Dr. Gemechu to reflect on his experience working with MSH and what remains to be done to eliminate the disease in Ethiopia.

Dr. Gemechu cross-checks doses taken and doses remaining on TB treatment patient kits at a health center in Oromia region to verify whether treatment is being delivered according to national guidelines.What drives you to fight TB in your home country?

How to outsmart superbugs: We know what to do but must get better at applying what we know [26]

Javier Guzman [27]

Health Systems Strengthening [4]

[26]An Afghan nurse washes her hands before taking care of patients in Wazir Akbar Khan hospital, Kabul Afghanistan. Photo Credit: Jawad Jalali

Originally published by Scientific American [28]

“Rise of the superbugs.” “Global crisis.” “Nightmare bacteria.” “Deadly fungus.”

The media has caught on to the dire threat that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) presents, and it has certainly captured the urgency of the situation.

Global health professionals know this crisis has been years in the making and have been acting accordingly. We know, however, that we cannot contain the spread of AMR without strengthening health systems in low- and middle-income countries, which tend to have weaker surveillance systems for drug use and infectious disease management. Our efforts would be futile. It’s time to take stock of where we are and figure out our focus going forward; we have no time to lose.

The global health organization I work for, Management Sciences for Health (MSH), has been strengthening health systems in dozens of countries for almost 50 years, alongside governments, donors, global organizations like the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) Consortium and the World Health Organization (WHO) and other nonprofits. Based on results to date, here are four lessons we have learned:

Read more [26]

Links
[1] https://msh.org/blog/2019/10/03/what-does-scalable-innovation-in-global-health-look-like#comments
[2] https://msh.org/blog/2019/10/03/what-does-scalable-innovation-in-global-health-look-like
[3] https://msh.org/users/laura-hanson
[4] https://msh.org/blog-categories/health-systems-strengthening
[5] https://msh.org/blog-categories/universal-health-coverage
[6] https://competitions4dev.org/healthaccessprize
[7] https://msh.org/blog/2019/10/07/making-the-case-for-investing-in-community-health-workers#comments
[8] https://msh.org/blog/2019/10/07/making-the-case-for-investing-in-community-health-workers
[9] https://msh.org/users/colin-gilmartin
[10] https://www.globalhealthnow.org/2017-08/community-health-workers-priority-universal-health-coverage
[11] https://www.msh.org/resources/community-health-planning-and-costing-tool
[12] https://msh.org/blog/2019/10/17/addressing-gender-inequality-through-nutrition-lessons-from-malawi#comments
[13] https://msh.org/blog/2019/10/17/addressing-gender-inequality-through-nutrition-lessons-from-malawi
[14] https://msh.org/users/katherine-wright
[15] https://msh.org/users/cara-endyke-doran
[16] https://msh.org/blog-categories/women-gender
[17] https://deliverforgood.org/addressing-gender-inequality-through-nutrition-lessons-from-malawi/
[18] https://msh.org/blog/2019/10/17/fragile-states-need-private-sector-allies#comments
[19] https://msh.org/blog/2019/10/17/fragile-states-need-private-sector-allies
[20] https://msh.org/users/marian-w-wentworth
[21] https://msh.org/blog-categories/fragile-states
[22] https://www.globalhealthnow.org/2019-10/fragile-states-need-private-sector-allies
[23] https://msh.org/blog/2019/10/28/leading-voices-daniel-gemechu#comments
[24] https://msh.org/blog/2019/10/28/leading-voices-daniel-gemechu
[25] https://msh.org/blog/2019/10/28/how-to-outsmart-superbugs-we-know-what-to-do-but-must-get-better-at-applying-what-we#comments
[26] https://msh.org/blog/2019/10/28/how-to-outsmart-superbugs-we-know-what-to-do-but-must-get-better-at-applying-what-we
[27] https://msh.org/users/javier-guzman
[28] https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-to-outsmart-superbugs/

What Does Scalable Innovation in Global Health Look Like? [2]

Making the Case for Investing in Community Health Workers [8]

Related

Addressing Gender Inequality Through Nutrition: Lessons from Malawi [13]

Fragile States Need Private Sector Allies [19]

Leading Voices: Daniel Gemechu [24]

How to outsmart superbugs: We know what to do but must get better at applying what we know [26]