News and Stories
Network Joins UNICEF in Publishing Report on Childhood Noncommunicable Diseases
The NCDI Poverty Network—through one of its co-secretariats, the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital—has joined UNICEF in publishing a report on the burden on noncommunicable diseases on children, adolescents, and young adults in South Asia.
Testing a Model for Depression Care in Malawi
NCDI Poverty Network members joined other researchers in assessing a mental health intervention that was integrated into an existing model of chronic care in Malawi. They found that such interventions can be inexpensive if they build off an existing infrastructure, involve lay personnel, and deliver therapy in a group format.
“Nothing For Us, Without Us”
The International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes meeting in October shined a spotlight on patient advocates as key stakeholders in developing guidelines for type 1 diabetes care globally.
Workshop Convenes All Eight Countries in UNICEF’s Regional Office for South Asia
In early June, delegations from all eight countries in UNICEF ROSA—the Regional Office for South Asia—convened in Kathmandu for a three-day workshop on severe childhood-onset noncommunicable diseases.
Challenging Assumptions for Low-Income Countries
A recently published study of people living with type 1 diabetes in two rural clinics in Malawi found a high level of acceptability and satisfaction among those using continuous glucose monitoring, suggesting that the technology is feasible in low-income settings.
From Words to Action
The first International Conference on PEN-Plus in Africa provided a platform for health experts, policymakers, civil society organization representatives, donors, people living with noncommunicable diseases, and community advocates to expedite political and financial backing for PEN-Plus.
An Underpinning of Research
In advance of the International Conference on PEN-Plus in Africa, the NCDI Poverty Network team compiled research resources on PEN-Plus and other integrated-science healthcare delivery models.
Network Publishes Scoping Review of Sickle Cell Disease Care
NCDI Poverty Network researchers recently published a scoping review of models of care for people with sickle cell disease in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Their findings confirmed the care limitations the Network has been seeking to overcome through the implementation of the PEN-Plus model.
International Conference Series on PEN-Plus in Africa to Debut in April
“PEN-Plus” was coined only five years ago, but already the integrated care-delivery model is receiving a spotlight on the global stage, with the launch of the first annual International Conference on PEN-Plus in Africa. The invitational conference will take place in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in April.
Integration Science Can Help Heal Global Health Inequities
Integration science can do more than deliver quality healthcare; it can also deliver global health equity solutions. That’s the central premise of “From Local Innovation to National Scale to Global Impact: Integration Science as an Engine of Change and an Agenda for Action,” the second annual symposium of the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity.
Stronger Together: The Power of Patient Organizers in the Fight for Global Health Justice
“People living with chronic conditions have historically not been considered important decision-makers from a policy perspective,” said Dr. Apoorva Gomber, coauthor of an opinion piece recently published in PLOS Global Public Health.
Integration Science Study on the Delivery Status of High-Priority Clinical Services Launched
In August, the NCDI Poverty Network’s Maputo Co-Secretariat launched an integration science study designed to generate information on the delivery status of high-priority clinical services for people with noncommunicable diseases at 20 facilities in Mozambique, Cameroon, and Nigeria.
World Health Organization Recognizes Center for Leadership in Integration Science
The Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity has been named a WHO Collaborating Centre in recognition of its work in designing integrated care delivery systems for people living with severe noncommunicable diseases in extreme poverty.
What Women Want: Rwanda Study Highlights Women’s Top Health Concerns
Access to care for back pain, food insecurity, and abnormal vaginal bleeding. Overcoming the barriers to care posed by the high costs of transportation to clinic and missing work. Care delivered in a way that respects both dignity and privacy. Those were some of the top healthcare priorities that women in rural Rwanda identified in an International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics study.
Q&A: Center for Integration Science Aims to Break the Impasse on Global Health Equity
Type 1 diabetes, sickle cell disease, and rheumatic and congenital heart disease. In the United States, if people with any of these diseases walk through a hospital’s doors, they can get treated. Their treatment is typically swift and, by and large, effective. Yet, in low-income nations, these conditions can be a death sentence, together claiming the lives of more than 175,000 children and adults living in extreme poverty every year. More than 80 percent of these deaths could be avoided if people living in poor, rural areas of low-income countries had access to the highly effective treatment routinely available in the United States and other wealthy countries.
Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity Celebrates Inaugural Symposium
The Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity (CIS) hosted its inaugural symposium on Thursday, 10 November 2022 at the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School (HMS).
Research to Measure Demand for PEN-Plus in Africa Finds Ministries of Health Are Determined to Expand Access to Care for Severe NCDs
A study co-authored by researchers from the NCDI Poverty Network and the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) has found that health ministries in Africa have ambitious plans to address gaps in availability of services for severe NCDs by introducing and decentralizing care for insulin-dependent diabetes, heart failure, sickle cell disease, and chronic pain control over the next five years.
Study in Malawi Shows CHW Programs Can Be Successfully Expanded to Address NCDs and Antenatal Care
The stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled trial evaluated expanding an existing HIV and tuberculosis (TB) CHW program to include NCDs, malnutrition and TB screening, as well as family planning and antenatal care (ANC).
New publication presents “quantitative evidence of significant health equity gap for the poorest billion”
A recently published article by a team of Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission members and researchers has found that the burden of both communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional (CMNN) diseases and of noncommunicable diseases and injuries (NCDIs) is much greater for the world’s poorest billion people than for high-income populations.
Journal article synthesizes key findings from national NCDI Poverty Commissions
An original article published in Global Health: Science and Practice synthesizes key findings of national NCDI Poverty Commissions established in 16 low- and lower-middle-income countries to determine an expanded set of priority NCDI conditions and recommend cost-effective, equitable health sector interventions to address them.