Reintroducing vacuum extraction in primary health care facilities: A case study from Tanzania
Background: In rural Tanzania access to emergency obstetric and newborn care is threatened by poor roads and understaffed facilities among other challenges. Districts in Kigoma, Pwani and Morogoro regions were targeted by a local non-governmental organization to assist local government to build capacity and improve access to clinical management of severe obstetric and newborn complications. […]
A case study on building capacity to improve clinical mentoring and maternal child health in rural Tanzania: The path to implementation
Background: Tanzania is a low income, East African country with a severe shortage of human resources for health or health workers. This shortage threatens any gains the country is making in improving maternal health outcomes. This paper describes a partnership between Touch Foundation and NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing – Global, aimed at improving […]
Policy adoption and the implementation woes of the intersectoral first 1000 days of childhood initiative, in the Western Cape province of South Africa
Background: There is a growing interest in implementing intersectoral approaches to address social determinants especially within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) era. However, there is limited research that uses policy analysis approaches to understand the barriers to adoption and implementation of intersectoral approaches. In this paper we apply a policy analysis lens in examining implementation […]
Satisfaction with use of public health and peer-led facilities for HIV prevention services by key populations in Nigeria
Background: The aim of the study was to identify the proportion of female sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs who had accessed HIV prevention services at public health facilities and peer-led facilities, their level of satisfaction with these services, and perceived barriers and challenges to accessing HIV services […]
Demographics, clinical characteristics and neonatal outcomes in a rural Ugandan NICU
Background: Ninety-six percent of the world’s 3 million neonatal deaths occur in developing countries where the majority of births occur outside of a facility. Community-based approaches to the identification and management of neonatal illness have reduced neonatal mortality over the last decade. To further expand life-saving services, improvements in access to quality facility-based neonatal care […]
Unveiling the black box of diagnostic and clinical decision support systems for antenatal care: Realist evaluation
Background: Digital innovations have shown promise for improving maternal health service delivery. However, low-and middle-income countries are still at the adoption-utilization stage. Evidence on mobile health has been described as a black box, with gaps in theoretical explanations that account for the ecosystem of health care and their effect on adoption mechanisms. Bliss4Midwives, a modular […]
The “universal” in UHC and Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme: Policy and implementation challenges and dilemmas of a lower middle income country
Background: Despite universal population coverage and equity being a stated policy goal of its NHIS, over a decade since passage of the first law in 2003, Ghana continues to struggle with how to attain it. The predominantly (about 70 %) tax funded NHIS currently has active enrolment hovering around 40 % of the population. This […]
Mobile Technology for Community Health in Ghana: What happens when technical functionality threatens the effectiveness of digital health programs?
Background: Despite the growing use of technology in the health sector, little evidence is available on the technological performance of mobile health programs nor on the willingness of target users to utilize these technologies as intended (behavioral performance). In this case study of the Mobile Technology for Health (MOTECH) program in Ghana, we assess the […]
Health management information system (HMIS) data verification: A case study in four districts in Rwanda
Introduction Reliable Health Management and Information System (HMIS) data can be used with minimal cost to identify areas for improvement and to measure impact of healthcare delivery. However, variable HMIS data quality in low- and middle-income countries limits its value in monitoring, evaluation and research. We aimed to review the quality of Rwandan HMIS data […]
An e-health decision support system for improving compliance of health workers to the maternity care protocols in South Africa
Background: There are problems of quality in maternity services at primary health care level in South Africa. Many of these problems can be traced to non-adherence to the maternity care guidelines and lack of tools to support clinic staff and managers in their roles. Objective: The aim of this research was to investigate the utility […]
