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January 2022
FEATURE
People-Centered Metrics for HIV resource launched
Partnering with Leapfrog to Value and Data.FI, CII and USAID’s Office of HIV/AIDS (OHA) recently released a resource called “Putting People-Centered Metrics for HIV Into Practice.” CII’s Senior Advisor, Monisha Ashok, and OHA’s Health Science Specialist, Emily Harris, worked to apply a value-based care and human-centered design approach to develop metrics that matter most to patients living with HIV, in an effort to deliver and incentivize patient-centered care and treatment. This included not only clinical metrics (e.g. viral suppression) but also quality of care (e.g. privacy) and quality of life (e.g. social support) metrics that motivate patient behavior. The metrics builds on OHA and CII’s ongoing partnership to promote value-based, human-centered health care.
The metrics and operational guidance are being validated in a HIV program-context by Data.FI in sub-Saharan Africa this year. CII and USAID/India have also worked with Leapfrog to Value and World Health Partners (WHP) to apply a similar value-based care approach to patient-centered measurement, delivery, and payment models for TB in India.
Market Access
PLM working to increase uptake of vaccines through TikTok campaign
In South Africa, Project Last Mile (PLM) is working with the USAID Mission and government to address a vaccination gap among young people between the ages of 18 to 34. To do this, PLM mobilized its demand generation team to create a communications strategy, which included providing accurate information about vaccine safety and efficacy to TikTok influencers who then developed their own content in their own voice. Over the course of three days, this content generated 5.5 million organic, non-paid engagements. One popular video had over 3.3 million views in 72 hours. This work builds on existing social behavioral change communications that PLM is employing to support the fight against COVID.
Innovation
GSTC supporting innovators to develop surgical training modules
To improve the pipeline of surgical training modules, CII is serving on the panel of judges of the Global Surgical Training Challenge (GSTC), a $5 million competition designed to bring together international teams of innovators to develop low-cost, open-source surgical simulation training modules for low-resource settings. Last year, judges selected ten teams for their Discovery Award, including models for performing safe colostomy on newborns and a holistic model for patient care in the treatment of ectopic pregnancy. This year the judges will select the two finalists to develop an additional 2 to 3 surgical modules per team. All of the awarded modules will be made accessible to surgical practitioners online for use in their own training procedures.
Digital Health
USAID Digital Health Vision highlighted in OECD report
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recently released its 2021 Development Co-operation Report, Shaping A Just Digital Transformation, featuring a case study written by Senior Digital Health Advisor Adele Waugaman. The case study focuses on the opportunity to coordinate digital health investments for stronger health systems and greater resilience. The piece highlights the priorities in USAID’s Digital Health Vision, and spotlights initiatives enabling better coordination of investments into interoperable and scalable digital health systems, including the UNICEF-WHO Digital Health Center of Excellence (DICE) and the expansion of Digital Square.
UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENTS
ATScale
Mobilizing for Assistive Technology
January 14, 2022
HCD Exchange
Quality and Standards Framework Launch: HCD in Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
January 20, 2022
Harvard T.H. Chan
How Accelerating Environmental Change is Impacting the Mental Health of Populations
February 2, 2022
News
Reuters
Gates, Wellcome pledge $150 mln each to pandemic preparedness group
January 18, 2022
MedCity News
New coalition aims to accelerate responsible AI innovation to transform healthcare
January 13, 2022
BBC
Man gets genetically-modified pig heart in world-first transplant
January 11, 2022
CII NEWS
USAID/India and its partners increasing access to COVID vaccines by engaging local private sector partners
A recent study, previously supported by Market Access Advisor Mila Nepomnyashchiy while at CHIA, reveals the challenges of introducing rectal artesunate in community health systems in children under five
What We're Reading (And Listening To)
Freakonomics Radio
Is the Government More Entrepreneurial Than You Think?
New York Times
In Southern Africa, Success Against H.I.V. Offers Hope for Beating Back Another Virus
Times of India
Our public health system needs a dose of data transparency
Washington Post
Why Wordle is the perfect game for the moment
Opportunities
HealthTech Hub Africa
Volunteer Mentor, Innovation Program
VentureWell
E-team grant program
STAFF SPOTLIGHT
Eyelachew Desta, Innovation and Scale Up Intern
Eyelachew is an Innovation and Scale Up Intern at the Center for Innovation and Impact (CII). His work focuses on assisting with design of an accelerator and a prize competition, in addition to drafting written materials related to USAID-supported projects. Prior to joining CII, he worked with programs focused on helping refugees settling in Atlanta become self sufficient. Before moving to the United States, he worked with community health programs to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV as a program management in Ethiopia.
He was drawn to CII by the chance to learn more about innovation in global health programming and to figure out how to bridge big picture and field work. When not working, Eyelachew likes to listen to African jazz music (especially Mulatu Astatke) and spend time with his friends and family. Health.
Read Eyelachew’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.
