Author: ihsection

Global Health News Last Week

by ihsection, posted in News

Note: I apologize for the hiatus in the news round-up; I went to a major conference for work in April and was very busy with preparations and then wrap-up afterwards.

April 25 was World Malaria Day. According to the WHO, world malaria deaths have fallen 20% from 2000 to 2009.

The Global Health Hub has developed a really nifty global health timeline. It is interactive and open – meaning it can be edited by anyone.

POLICY

RESEARCH

  • Scientists have isolated the tuberculosis enzyme that destroys lung tissue, MMP-1. The discovery could speed up the search for treatments, as current regimens do not prevent the lung damage caused by TB infection.
  • Results from a recent study indicate that advances in antiretroviral therapy over the last 15 years have considerably improved outcomes for children with HIV who are entering adolescence and young adulthood.

DISEASES AND DISASTERS

  • Aging populations on Japan’s northeast coast are struggling to recover from last month’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, and health officials are concerned about increased incidence of pneumonia, influenza, respiratory illenss, and blood clots in the legs of older individuals.
  • The first WHO Global Status Report on Non-communicable Diseases found that these diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide.

Global HIV Prevention—Check!

by ihsection, posted in Guest Blog, HIV/AIDS

by Kate McQuestion E-mail
In 2006, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine cited the substantial success of the implementation of a routine checklist on reducing catheter-related infections in the Intensive Care Unit of a Michigan Hospital. This story was shortly followed by media uptake the WHO Patient Safety Checklist, which, when utilized, reduced surgery-related mortality by almost 50%. The clinical use of checklists has become a hot topic for clinical quality improvement advocates, and as such, they been generally embraced in some areas of clinical practice.

Could this kind of tool be effective in public health?

The concept of a checklist is, intentionally, simple. The checklist serves as a mechanism to combat human failures of attention or memory—particularly in high stress or repetitive environments. The overall goal of a checklist is not only to ensure that each item is checked-off as prescribed, but to ensure an environment that promotes teamwork and professional discipline. Due to the ability of checklists to make complex systems approachable, they have already been widely used in industries such as aviation and construction, and now are advancing in medicine as well.

HIV prevention efforts, too, involve complex systems consisting of dynamic target populations, multiple programmatic efforts, and a lack of measurable quality indicators—all in all, making sustainable quality improvement challenging.

Checklists might provide a standardized method to ensure basic quality improvement and program management practices in an environment where pressing need may often lead to deficits in consistent and quality programming. Furthermore, they can be used as a tool to increase quality by improving communication, both internally within an organization, but also with the members of the target population being served.

It is a common complaint that too little emphasis falls of clinical delivery sciences, but it is fair to say that even less falls of preventative services delivery. NGOs working in HIV prevention need to keep better track of both the outcomes and impact of their programs. With out measuring results, it is hard to identify best practices and improve quality standards. HIV Quality Improvement Checklist tools could serve as a constant reminder for NGOs to monitor and evaluate results, thus improving health of communities world-wide.

Sources:

  • Pronovost P, Needham D, Berenholtz S, et al. An intervention to decrease catheter-related bloodstream infections in the ICU. N Eng J Med 2006; 355: 2725–32.
  • Gawande A. The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right. Henry Holt and Co: New York, 2009.
  • Haynes AB, Weiser TG, Berry WR, et al; Safe Surgery Saves Lives Study Group. A surgical safety checklist to reduce morbidity and mortality in a global population [published online ahead of print January 14, 2009]. N Engl J Med. 2009; 360(5):491-499.

Kate McQueston is a Master of Public Health Student at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and Intern at the WHO Regional Office for Europe Division for Communicable Diseases.

You Voted, We Listened: Results of the GH Topic Online Poll

by ihsection, posted in APHA IH Section

In March, the IH section asked members to vote on which global health topics are most important to them in order to make our bi-monthly section-wide calls more relevant to membership. We sent out a section-wide e-mail with a link to an online poll and received 167 responses by April 1.

Three topics came in with most votes overall: infectious diseases: HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB, pandemics, with 81 votes; health systems strengthening, with 79 votes; and maternal, neonatal, and child health and nutrition, with 78 votes. Among these, infectious diseases received the most votes (15%) among all first choice topics, and this topic was also ranked highly among people’s second and third choices. Among other first choices for GH topics, ‘new topic’ came in second, and health and human rights’ came in third with 11%. Among second topic choices, health and human rights shared second place with community-based primary health care and improved metrics, research, monitoring and evaluation.

We also had 50 new GH topics suggested. While there was no clear consensus about priorities among these, a text pattern analysis revealed preferences for equity and inequities, social determinants of health, and community, sanitation, and prevention. Thanks to everyone who voted, and to Eckhard Kleinau for organizing the results.

PSI Internship: Malaria and Child Survival Department Intern (Washington, DC)

by ihsection, posted in Information and Social Media, Internships and Fellowships

Description:
PSI seeks an intern to support the Malaria & Child Survival Department. This internship provides an opportunity to work with department staff to provide technical support and global knowledge management for PSI’s diarrheal disease, malaria, pneumonia and nutrition programs. The intern will support various administrative, management and technical functions.

PSI offers flexible working hours and a dynamic, creative, and progressive work environment. This internship requires at least 35 hours per week and is a paid position, based in Washington, DC. The internship will begin June 1 and go through August 2011.

Responsibilities: The Malaria & Child Survival intern will have a variety of duties for different projects related to PSI’s activities. Duties will include but are not limited to:

  • Conducting research and synthesizing reports on various malnutrition, malaria, diarrheal disease and pneumonia programs, findings and data;
  • Fulfilling administrative functions as required, including invoicing, expense reconciling and submitting monthly product reports;
  • Supporting administrative preparation for key Malaria & Child Survival presentations, conferences, meetings and retreats;
  • Maintaining and updating various administrative records of PSI sales and activities, including an internal system of knowledge management;
  • Assisting in creation and updating of communications materials, including one pagers and presentations;
  • Assisting with analysis of health metrics data;
  • Responding to internal/external requests for information and assisting with website updates as necessary;
  • Support with grant writing and proposal submission as necessary.
  • Assist with curriculum overview for graphics-driven course and facilitator and trainee manuals for department training course.

Experience:
The ideal candidate will possess strong computer, analytical and organizational skills; attention to detail; ability to prioritize and perform multiple tasks; ability to follow assignments through to completion; and strong commitment to deadlines. Additionally, an ideal candidate will have:

  • Strong qualitative and quantitative skills, including ability to synthesize large amounts of information into succinct documents.
  • Experience with data management, indexing and spreadsheets.
  • Strong organizational and time management skills.
  • Experience and proficiency with Adobe Indesign and Adobe Illustrator.
  • Interest in health and/or international development preferred.

Please send a letter of interest and resume/CV to mcsd@psi.org. No phone calls please.

Waiting for Handouts

by ihsection, posted in Disaster Response, Guest Blog

by Ibrahim Kargbo E-mail LinkedIn Twitter

On a recent trip to Haiti to conduct program monitoring and evaluation, I was taken aback by the statement of a woman who was forced to relocate due to the 2010 earthquake. When asked why she continues to attend HIV/AIDS education programs, her response was “…because I was promised a house and money”. Upon further interaction with the woman, I learned that she was told by a responding aid organization that she would be given a house and money to help her recover. Hearing her comment, I was left to question whether or not the responsibility of post-disaster recovery is made clear and rightly shared.

I very much support the massive global response to environmental disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the recent 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami. As a global community, we share the tremendous responsibility of assisting each other with disaster recovery efforts. Regardless of the disaster, we donate money, time, technical assistance, and other resources to countries in need, either because we are expected to do so or because we are emotionally impelled to assist; whichever is the case, we manage to step up to the plate to provide recovery assistance.

But at what point should disaster recovery become more of the effected country’s responsibility than that of assisting countries? As we overwhelmingly respond to disasters, we forget to remind countries that emergency assistance they receive is only temporary and as citizens, it is they and their governments who are ultimately responsible for recovery efforts and long-term reconstruction. Donors and disaster response agencies should refrain from promising and or providing long-term resources for disaster recovery, doing so may potentially create an environment which citizens and country governments do not take initiative and responsibility for long-term recovery efforts, further handicapping the people’s ability to recover from future disasters.

In a perfect world, country citizens and their governments do not wait for handouts from donors and other countries, but instead, respond to disasters with pride for their country and support of one another. We all should work towards a perfect world.

Ibrahim Kargbo is a Master of Public Health student at George Mason University.