More articles from FIELD ACTION REPORT
- VECTOS: An Integrated System for Monitoring Risk Factors Associated With Urban Arbovirus Transmission
To strengthen local surveillance of mosquito-borne viral diseases such as dengue and Zika, a multidisciplinary team developed an integrated web-based information system called VECTOS that captures geo-referenced entomological, epidemiological, and social data. The system has revealed previously unidentified features, such as specific neighborhoods, at persistently high risk.
- Strengthening and Institutionalizing the Leadership and Management Role of Frontline Nurses to Advance Universal Health Coverage in Zambia
Through a 12-month blended learning program, nurses and nurse-midwives leading low-resource health facilities at the community level improved their capacity to engage community members, increased their ability to lead frontline teams, strengthened their skills and confidence in technology use, and optimized investments in the community health system to achieve high-quality services.
- Implementation Research to Strengthen Health Care Financing Reforms Toward Universal Health Coverage in Indonesia: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Real-World Monitoring
Implementation research enabled stakeholders to formulate questions, assess implications of research results that informed changes in regulations and payment at the primary care level, and strengthen monitoring capacity. While the national health insurance system had some impact on performance of primary care facilities, individual providers remained unsatisfied because payment was largely based on factors outside of their control such as tenure and position, rather than their contributions to improved performance.
- Adaptation of the Training Resource Package to Strengthen Preservice Family Planning Training for Nurses and Midwives in Tanzania and Uganda
Lessons learned when adapting the evidence-based global family planning training resource package included the need to: (1) engage key nursing and midwifery educators for buy-in; (2) update the technical skills of educators in contraceptive technology and competency-based training methods; and (3) adapt to the local context including condensing the global content for the time-limited preservice education context.
- Decentralized, Community-Based Treatment for Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis: Bangladesh Program Experience
Shifting from hospital- to community-based management of drug-resistant TB, increased treatment enrollment, reduced treatment initiation delays, improved follow-up and adherence, and lowered treatment failure, and was associated with higher cure rates and lower mortality.
- Positive Influence of Behavior Change Communication on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices for Visceral Leishmaniasis/Kala-azar in India
After 8 months of behavior change communication activities, largely using group and interpersonal communication, refusal of indoor residual spraying to prevent visceral leishmaniasis was significantly lower among households in intervention villages (8%) than control villages (25%). Knowledge and attitudes were also better among the households in the intervention villages than control villages.
- An NGO-Implemented Community–Clinic Health Worker Approach to Providing Long-Term Care for Hypertension in a Remote Region of Southern India
Paid community health workers screened for hypertension in the community, referred cases to the clinic for diagnosis and initial treatment by a physician, and then monitored patients who had well-controlled blood pressure including dispensing maintenance medications prescribed by the physician. Blood pressure control was successful in the majority of such patients.
- More Than Bar Codes: Integrating Global Standards-Based Bar Code Technology Into National Health Information Systems in Ethiopia and Pakistan to Increase End-to-End Supply Chain Visibility
Bar codes can help track and trace health products in the supply chain. But to do so efficiently, they should be based on global standards rather than a proprietary system, and the captured data should be integrated into national health information systems to achieve end-to-end data visibility.
- Community-Based Noncommunicable Disease Care for Syrian Refugees in Lebanon
The high prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) among Syrian refugees in Lebanon required a shift in the humanitarian response, from direct care provided through mobile medical clinics to community-based primary health care and health promotion provided through trained refugee outreach volunteers (ROVs). During the first 2 months after training, these ROVs conducted 753 blood pressure monitoring visits and 657 blood glucose checks; monitored medication adherence among 387 patients with NCDs; referred 293 refugees to the local primary health care facility for additional care; and provided 346 targeted health education messages.
- The Tobacco-Free Village Program: Helping Rural Areas Implement and Achieve Goals of Tobacco Control Policies in India
Tobacco control and prevention in rural areas are possible as demonstrated by a community-driven tobacco-free village program in India. Success factors included community ownership with supportive program guidance, motivated and committed local leaders, collaboration with grassroots organizations, rewards and sanctions to establish new social norms, and provision of other income-generating options for vendors who sell tobacco. While the program required time and dedicated effort and was not successful in all villages, it holds promise for helping to achieve the goals of tobacco control policies, especially in resource-scarce settings.