Global Health Delivery is an emerging initiative to create a new discipline of health care delivery science, focusing on the implementation of quality health care in low-resource settings.
The FXB Center is collaborating with Partners In Health and our affiliates at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School to build this discipline, which links academic efforts with practical efforts in the field in order to:
- create the analytical knowledge base for effective global health care delivery;
- build a new cadre of global health leaders; and,
- rapidly disseminate best practices worldwide.
The Challenge
The world is focused as never before on averting millions of preventable deaths from diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries. Unprecedented new funding is being invested to provide care today and to discover new treatments and technologies for tomorrow. While potentially a lifeline for millions, this new commitment has also put a glaring spotlight on our ability--or inability--to effectively utilize new investments and systematically deliver care to those who need it.
For too many global health practitioners today, the “implementation gap” between aspiration and effectiveness is frustratingly large. Health professionals worldwide are desperate for the information and tools they need to provide the best possible care, but no comprehensive effort currently exists to meet their needs. Ironically, these same hurdles to effective care delivery are just as prevalent in our own health care system, where our ability to ensure that the best therapies are consistently used by patients who need them falls woefully short.
The Model
Through a combination of case-based, intensive coursework and field-based learning, the program will emphasize leadership, management skill and thoughtful decision-making in real world situations. Program participants will take advantage of both degree granting programs and shorter “executive” courses. A hallmark of the program will be ongoing mentorship of all participants long after coursework is completed and an aggressive effort to link participants in a lifelong “community of practice”, including through a pioneering web-based network that will allow global health practitioners to collaborate and engage in real-time problem solving on-line. At its core, the Global Health Delivery Initiative seeks to revolutionize the delivery of care in the world’s poorest countries and to develop a model that can be applied to closing our own domestic health care delivery gap.
