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Well-functioning and responsive health systems are crucial to addressing the global burden of disease. Central to widespread health inequities are inadequate, fragile health systems that hinder available interventions from reaching those who need them and prevent universal health access from becoming a realistic prospect. 

The TWG for Health Systems affords an opportunity to examine approaches that strengthen and streamlne health systems in order to advance the study of health system reform.

Conveners: 
Lynn Freedman and Miriam Rabkin

 Seminars:

Thursday, March 31
4:00 - 5:00 p.m.
VC5 Conference Room
5th floor of the Vanderbilt Clinic (622 W. 168 Street)

The Mobile Technology for Community Health Initiative (MoTeCH)
Sponsored by MoTeCH & GHI’s Thematic Working Group – Health Systems Science

Powerpoint Download

Currently, little is known about the feasibility of utilizing mobile phone technology for reforming routine health information operations and improving community health care worker efficiency and health service effectiveness.  Filling these critical knowledge gaps, MoTeCH (Mobile Technology for Community Health) - an innovative initiative that uses mobile phones in a rural community of Northern Ghana to collect health data and send information to patients www.ghsmotech.org -- will set the stage for national reform of the health management information system.  The completion of such efforts will test whether promising technology can strengthen the community-based health care services that are increasingly being implemented throughout the developing world. 

This seminar presentation will reflect on (1) the architecture of MoTeCH, key challenges of software development in low-income countries, and the open source health IT ecosystem that allows such projects to be built and (2) the potential of such technology more broadly in strengthening the community-based health care services that are increasingly being implemented throughout the developing world. 

Please join us for important discussions that aim to bring interdisciplinary insight to the area of health systems science, with featured speakers:

Bruce MacLeod
Professor of Computer Science, University of Southern Maine
Visiting Research Scientist, Department of Population and Family Health
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University

James F. Phillips
Professor of Clinical Population and Family Health
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Director, MoTeCH

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Wednesday, March 23, 2011
4:15 – 5:30 p.m.
Rosenfield 8th Floor Auditorium

Where There is No Health System 
Building a Continuum of Care in Resource Constrained Environments

with John Koku Awoonor-Williams, MD,MPH,MPP

Efficient and equitable delivery of quality health services at scale requires reliable and country-led health systems capable of effective strategic planning, resource utilization, and implementation of integrated programs tailored to individual and community needs.  Dr. Koku Awoonor has played a catalytic role in improving health care coverage in the most poorly resourced communities of Ghana.  In 1997, he was responsible for establishing and implementing health systems innovations in one of the most deprived and limited districts in terms of health infrastructure.  Since then, he has led the successful implementation and scale-up of health services to 38 additional districts in the country. 

For a copy of Dr. Koku's presentation please contact Alberto Mejia at Am3539@columbia.edu

Sponsored by GHI’s Thematic Working Group – Health Systems Science
Averting Maternal Death and Disability
Ghana Essential Health Intervention Project

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November 23rd, 2010

Integrating HIV and Maternal Child Health Programs:  Cultures, Synergies, Strategies and Cautions

Materials from the Seminar

The perils and possibilities of HIV-MNCH Intervention,Lynn P.Freedman

Solutions When the Solution is the Problem:Arraying the Disarray in Development,Lant Pritchett

Scaling-up antiretroviral treatment in Southern African countries
with human resource shortage: How will health systems adapt?
Wim Van Damme & Katharina Kober, Guy Kegels