We’ve made tremendous progress over the summer in our three key work streams: education, research, and dissemination through our online communities. Here are a few highlights and next steps.
We kicked off the summer with the launch of GHDonline and our first public communities of practice. Since their debut, the communities have attracted
hundreds of members representing many countries and a wide variety of organizations. I encourage you to visit GHDonline to participate in the Adherence & Retention, Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, Technology, and TB Infection Control communities.
At about the same time, the World Health Organization asked GHD to collaborate on the Health Systems Strengthening research project and lead a consortium of eight universities in addressing the following question: How can global health initiatives and national health systems optimize their interactions to capitalize on positive synergies and minimize negative impacts, thereby achieving their common goal of improving health outcomes? Dr. Jim Kim and our team are leading the academic consortium in a three-pronged approach to this project: quantitative cross-country analysis, country-level mixed-method case studies, and program evaluations. We will present our research and findings at the 2009 G8 summit in Italy. Our goal is that this work will have actionable implications for policymakers.
In July, we conducted our case-based delivery course, “Introduction to Global Health Delivery,” at Harvard School of Public Health for the second time this year. The course received a tremendously positive response from students, who gave the course a rating of 4.9 out of 5.0. In the words of one student: “Understanding Global Health and its ever expanding scope and challenges is fast becoming a critical part of the education of all American physicians and public health advocates. Taking Harvard’s class on Global Health Delivery was a life-changing experience made vivid and compelling by exceptional faculty and staff from Partners In Health and HSPH who are committed to excellence in both service and teaching.”
This week, we will kick off an undergraduate course, “Health, Culture and Community: Case Studies in Global Health” offered through the Anthropology department at Harvard College. And in October, we will launch the new GHD section in MIT Sloan’s flagship course, Global Entrepreneurship Lab (G-Lab), which will engage 50 students in operations, management, and supply chain projects in collaboration with health care delivery programs based in Africa.
With fourteen case studies completed and nine approaching completion, the GHD cases represent a key tool in developing frameworks to diagnose and improve care delivery in multiple settings. Following the Harvard Business School model, the cases document the experiences of actual global health programs and examine the role of diverse factors on program strategy, design, and implementation (Download sample descriptions of completed cases).
As the summer draws to a close, we’re preparing for a season of change and growth as we gear up for the launch of several new projects and course offerings. The flexibility and determination of our summer staff, and the collaboration and support of our partners and funders, have been critical to our efforts these past few months.
Many thanks to you all.
