Health Systems
- Remote Mentorship Using Video Conferencing as an Effective Tool to Strengthen Laboratory Quality Management in Clinical Laboratories: Lessons From Cambodia
This program to strengthen laboratory quality management systems in Cambodia demonstrated significant improvements in conformity to ISO 15189 standards in participating laboratories, correlating with laboratory participation time in video conference training activities led by quality improvement mentors over the program implementation period.
- A Rapid Cost Modeling Tool for Evaluating and Improving Public Health Supply Chain Designs
The Rapid Supply Chain Modeling Tool enables health system leaders to quickly estimate and compare the cost impact of potential supply chain design improvements in situations where time and budget do not allow for more in-depth modeling approaches.
- Improving Hospital Oxygen Systems for COVID-19 in Low-Resource Settings: Lessons From the Field
Hospitals in low- and middle-income countries urgently need to improve their oxygen systems for COVID-19 and other health emergencies. We share practical tips to improve pulse oximetry and oxygen use, support biomedical engineers to optimize existing oxygen supplies, and expand existing oxygen systems with robust equipment and smart design.
- The All Babies Count Initiative: Impact of a Health System Improvement Approach on Neonatal Care and Outcomes in Rwanda
A health system improvement program combining facility readiness support, clinical training/mentoring, and improvement collaboratives increased quality improvement capacity, improved maternal and newborn quality of care, and reduced neonatal mortality. These results can be used to inform system improvement approach design to transform quality of care and outcomes for newborns.
- What Makes a National Pharmaceutical Track and Trace System Succeed? Lessons From Turkey
Successful implementation of a pharmaceutical track and trace system depended on the political determination to eliminate reimbursement fraud, as well as establishing a pharmaceutical market dominated by a single payer, making reimbursement contingent on verified dispensing and prescription, and being flexible in adapting the system according to stakeholders’ needs.
- Determinants of Facility-Level Use of Electronic Immunization Registries in Tanzania and Zambia: An Observational Analysis
We provide a framework to quantify the use of electronic immunization registry systems at the facility level and results show the importance of behavioral and organizational factors in explaining their sustained use in Tanzania and Zambia.
- Matching Development of Point-of-Care Diagnostic Tests to the Local Context: A Case Study of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Kenya and Uganda
We provide a new protocol to connect how findings from field research on the local health care setting in resource-limited regions can inform researchers that are working toward developing a new point-of-care diagnostic test for neglected tropical diseases.
- Factors That Influence Data Use to Improve Health Service Delivery in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
We identified factors that may influence the relationship between information generation and improvement of health service delivery: governance (leadership, participatory monitoring, regular review of data); production of information (presentation of findings, data quality, qualitative data); and health information system resources (electronic health management information systems, organizational structure, training).
- Doing Things Differently: What It Would Take to Ensure Continued Access to Contraception During COVID-19
COVID-19 may fundamentally change women’s contraceptive use, meaning that the future we have been planning and procuring for, may not match these changes. In these unprecedented times, we must rethink how we link product and program in the short-term to ensure women’s changing needs are met.
- District Health Teams’ Readiness to Institutionalize Integrated Community Case Management in the Uganda Local Health Systems: A Repeated Qualitative Study
District health teams failed to transition from partner-supported integrated community case management (iCCM) programs to locally-run and fully-institutionalized programs. Successful iCCM institutionalization requires local ownership with increased coordination among governmental and nongovernmental actors at the national and district levels.