FEATURE
Strengthening oxygen ecosystems during the COVID-19 pandemic
Last week, CII’s Nikki Tyler participated in a webinar entitled “Strengthening Oxygen Ecosystems during the COVID-19 Pandemic” along with partners from Unitaid, CHAI & FHI/Nepal. During the webinar, partners discussed their close collaboration together on strengthening oxygen ecosystems -- reflecting openly on lessons learned and discussing gaps in the response thus far.
This webinar built on the continued work of USAID to implement a strategy that guides COVID-related investment into medical oxygen. Over the last two years, USAID has supported over 50 countries in purchasing and distributing oxygen generating or storage equipment and related consumables and durables; technical assistance to train healthcare workers, engineers; and provide other critical logistics support. This work also identified a critical gap in unlocking the potential of bulk liquid oxygen, where feasible, and this was specifically mentioned by President Biden in the Presidential COVID Summit in September 2021.
Market Access
Project Last Mile working to increase men’s uptake of HIV services in South Africa
This month, Project Last Mile’s work in South Africa to develop marketing campaigns aimed at increasing men’s uptake of HIV testing and treatment services was featured in TimesLIVE. The MINA campaign was designed to promote men’s overall health and wellness through a national media campaign via TV, digital, and radio outreach. To date, the MINA campaign has achieved 91% familiarity across its target population of men living with HIV, with men surveyed crediting the campaign with motivating positive HIV behaviors. This campaign contributed to a acceleration in the testing and treatment initiation for men living with HIV, with 62,000 men seeking treatment for the first time and 107,000 men restarting treatment in fiscal year 2021 - a 7% increase nationally.
Innovation
CII Acting Director Amy Lin talks health innovation at Devex Prescription for Progress event
This week, CII Acting Director Amy Lin served as a panelist at Devex’s “Prescription for Progress” event, which brought together leaders across sectors working on technology and innovation to advance global health. Amy was joined by Equalize Health CEO Krista Donaldson to discuss how we can take global health solutions from discovery to development to delivery. They discussed the important role of partnerships in supporting innovation, as well as the need to think about human-centered design, service delivery, market access, and other important elements of the enabling environment. Some partnerships highlighted during the session included the Open Doors Africa Private Healthcare Initiative (ODAPHI) and the use of human-centered design in PrEP access through V.
Digital Health
Map & Match findings of ~3,000 digital tools for COVID across 156 countries to be shared in webinar
On March 1, CII and Digital Square will host a webinar to share the findings of an analysis of the ‘Map & Match’ data set. The Map & Match project mapped nearly 3,000 digital health tools deployed across 156 countries, and then matched them to COVID-19 needs. The project enables planners to better understand what digital health tools exist in their country, and which have functionality to meet COVID-19 vaccine delivery needs. The webinar will: share insights from an analysis of one of the largest available datasets of digital health tools deployed globally, identify patterns and trends in digital health investments, and provide recommendations for future digital health investments, data collection, and sharing efforts.
UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENTS
Simprints
Using Biometric Technology to Fight COVID-19
February 23, 2022
Market Links
When Global Health Supply Chains Go Local
February 24, 2022
Digital Square
Findings from a USAID Analysis of Map and Match Data
March 1, 2022
News
New York Times
A Woman is Cured of H.I.V. Using a Novel Treatment
February 15, 2022
Healthcare Innovation
HHS Awards Nearly $55 Million Toward Virtual Care
February 14, 2022
The East African
African leaders elevate Africa CDC to autonomous health agency of AU
February 7, 2022
Funding Opportunities
Aspen Institute
Communities First Catalyst Fund
Concordia
P3 Impact Awards
CII NEWS
Global Surgical Training Challenge (GSTC) announces four finalists to receive $500k to support development of their training modules
USAID INVEST releases new research on how to mobilize finance for global health, with mention of Blended Finance Roadmap and Tanzania partnership
What We're Reading (And Listening To)
Global Health Now
10 Fixes for Global Health Consulting Malpractice
Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research
The Bumpy Road to Better Health
Stat News
The Karikó problem: Lessons for funding basic research
Healthcare IT News
How Brigham and Women’s is democratizing digital transformation
Opportunities
Center for Innovation and Impact (CII)
Senior Innovative Finance and Market Access Advisor
Center for Innovation and Impact (CII)
Innovation Advisor
USAID Bureau for Global Health
Diversity Equity Inclusion and Accessibility Senior Advisor
STAFF SPOTLIGHT
Mila Nepomnyashchiy, Market Access Advisor
Mila is a Market Access Advisor in the Center for Innovation and Impact (CII). Her work focuses on investigating ways in which USAID can do more to accelerate the introduction and use of life-saving commodities. Prior to joining CII, Mila worked in a variety of roles to provide commodities in low, middle, and high income countries. At the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Mila also worked to support community healthcare workers in sub-Saharan Africa in advocating for essential personal protective equipment (PPE). When not working, she enjoys spending time with her daughters, all manners of fitness, and - when it’s safe! - meeting people in person.
Read Mila's full interview here [PDF, 139K]
USAID's Center for Innovation and Impact (CII) takes a business-minded approach to fast-tracking the development, introduction and scale-up of health interventions that address the world's most important health challenges. CII invests seed capital in the most promising ideas and novel approaches, using forward-looking business practices to cut the time it takes to transform discoveries in the lab to impact on the ground.