Publications

This case describes how the Honduran Ministry of Health developed and implemented a Chagas disease control program with the assistance of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and others from 2003 to 2012. After providing background information about Honduras and Chagas disease, the case examines the work of the Guatemalan Ministry of Health and JICA to implement a Chagas disease control program that provided the template for the program in Honduras. The case then describes the adaptation of this model for the Honduran context, including details of the surveillance model and vector control interventions. The case concludes with the program considering how it would maintain its success in spite of decreased funding and changes in leadership.

Main vector species of Chagas disease in Central America. Source: Biblioteca Virtual en Salud de Honduras.

Training community members for indoor residual spraying in the first trial in Intibucá 2004. Source: Case writers.

Learning Objectives: A productive class discussion will allow students to appreciate strategies in control of neglected tropical diseases; Chagas disease vector control and surveillance; the role of bilateral cooperation to strengthen health systems management; and how regional disease control initiatives are implemented locally.

This case takes place in the United States (US) and traces the inception and growth of Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (Project ECHO)—a web-based "guided practice" model for primary care providers—from 2003 to 2016. After providing background on the US health system, including medical education, health care financing, and the supply and distribution of primary care and specialist providers, the case explores what motivated Project ECHO founder and liver specialist Sanjeev Arora, MD to train primary care providers in rural New Mexico in hepatitis C treatment and management. It describes early replication of the ECHO model in the US and across medical conditions and what the Project ECHO model entailed—including leveraging technology to expand access to specialty resources, best practices, case-based learning, and outcome monitoring, as well as good will among participants. A professional communications campaign, ongoing research, and persistence supported Project ECHO’s growth. The case displays three dimensions of Project ECHO’s early work: creating a new mode to redistribute the expertise of specialists to primary care practitioners, scaling this new care delivery model and measuring its impact, and identifying sustainable funding sources. The case concludes with the US Congress passing the ECHO Act to promote research on the model and Arora contemplating what else he might need to continue to scale to reach his goal of touching 1 billion lives.

Learning Objectives: To understand what is needed to design a service model; the potential for redistribution of expertise among practitioners to enhance value; the role of operational effectiveness in enabling scale up; and the importance of measuring impact for stakeholders.

This case traces the development of the voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) campaign in Nyanza Province, Kenya as it transformed from the subject of a randomized clinical trial into national policy. After providing some background on the cultural, political, and scientific context surrounding male circumcision, the case traces the PEPFAR-funded implementers' advances in delivering male circumcision in Nyanza. It examines the various delivery models used in Nyanza and the evolution of the relationship between implementers as well as on the development of the national strategic plan for VMMC released in 2009. The case ends with the implementers having come together successfully for two rapid, aggressive, 30-day implementation campaigns and the head of Kenya's National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections Control Programme wrestling with how to make such campaigns sustainable and what lessons from the campaign to pass on to the national program. This is a condensed version of the case Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision in Nyanza Province, Kenya.

Learning Objectives: To understand how a randomized controlled trial may be translated into a large-scale public health program; how a surgical campaign was designed and implemented for rapid impact; the role of national and international collaboration in large-scale health delivery; and the ethical tradeoffs that arise in large-scale public health programs.

This case demonstrates what it takes to address a chronic, intergenerational public health issue. It explores the drivers behind the reduction of malnutrition in Maharashtra State, India, from 2001–2013. Specifically, the case examines the strategies and management decisions of leaders of the government-established Rajmata Jijau Mother-Child Health and Nutrition Mission as they worked to reduce the incidence of malnutrition in children and women through a multi-sectoral collaborative approach.

Learning Objectives: A productive class discussion will allow students to appreciate how to configure specific interventions and indicators to ameliorate and measure malnutrition for a local setting; the complexity and importance of crafting policies and generating political will across sectors in support of nutrition programs; and the role of a strong community workforce in enabling nutrition programs to reach the target population.

This case traces the development of the voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) campaign in Nyanza Province, Kenya as it transformed from the subject of a randomized clinical trial into national policy. After providing some background on the cultural, political, and scientific context surrounding male circumcision, the case traces the PEPFAR-funded implementers' advances in delivering male circumcision in Nyanza. It examines the various delivery models used in Nyanza and the evolution of the relationship between implementers as well as on the development of the national strategic plan for VMMC released in 2009. The case ends with the implementers having come together successfully for two rapid, aggressive, 30-day implementation campaigns and the head of Kenya's National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections Control Programme wrestling with how to make such campaigns sustainable and what lessons from the campaign to pass on to the national program.

Learning Objectives: To understand how a randomized controlled trial may be translated into a large-scale public health program; how a surgical campaign was designed and implemented for rapid impact; the role of national and international collaboration in large-scale health delivery; and the ethical tradeoffs that arise in large-scale public health programs.

This case reviews the changes in national policy and the subsequent interventions used to reduce the incidence of malaria in Zambia from 2005 to 2010. After providing contextual information on Zambia-including historical, demographic, social, and health information-the case delves into the history of malaria control efforts worldwide and in Zambia. Though Zambia was at the forefront of malaria control-changing policy, adopting new treatment, and aggressively pursuing comprehensive malaria control efforts-in the early 2000s, by 2005 the Zambian government was still falling short of its targets. The National Malaria Control Center (NMCC) resolved to intensify its efforts by developing one national plan to improve coordination, data collection, and partner involvement, and ultimately, to scale up interventions rapidly in order to meet the national malaria targets. The new NMCC director, Dr. Elizabeth Chizema, guided the program toward success through several key interventions described in the case. With basic improvements in monitoring and evaluation, Chizema could demonstrate progress in malaria control. Nonetheless, she worried that partners might lose interest in helping Zambia given the decreasing burden even though the program still had many challenges to overcome.

Learning Objectives: To understand the development of a successful malaria control program over time and the components that led to its success, including the value of setting bold national goals, the merits of a health system with centralized governance and decentralized implementation, the importance of multiple coordinated interventions as opposed to a "silver bullet" approach for malaria control, and the use of data as an outcome measure, planning tool, and fundraising tool.

The case delves into the history of malaria control efforts in Zambia, including control and treatment policy changes in the in the early 2000s that set Zambia apart from other countries. Because by 2005 Zambia was still falling short of its targets, the National Malaria Control Center (NMCC) resolved to intensify its efforts by developing one national plan to improve coordination, data collection, partner involvement, and ultimately, rapidly scale-up interventions to meet the national malaria targets. The new NMCC director, Dr. Elizabeth Chizema, helped the program achieve success through several key interventions described in the case. With improved monitoring and evaluation, Chizema could demonstrate progress in malaria control, but she worried that partners might lose interest in helping Zambia given the low burden, and the program still had many challenges to overcome. This is a condensed version of the case Malaria Control in Zambia.

Learning Objectives: To understand the development of a successful malaria control program over time and the components that led to its success including the value of setting bold national goals, the merits of a health system with centralized governance and decentralized implementation, the importance of multiple coordinated interventions as opposed to a "silver bullet" approach for malaria control, and the use of data as an outcome measure, planning tool, and fundraising tool.

This case documents Indonesia’s progress in developing a coordinated national HIV/AIDS response. Within the context of a new democratic government, a weak civil society sector, a newly decentralized and underfunded public health system, and a religiously conservative environment, the case describes how international donors financed and directed HIV/AIDS-related efforts for the first 15 years of the epidemic. In 2006 the National AIDS Commission (NAC) was restructured and awarded funding from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID). The case documents how DFID’s flexible financing enabled the NAC to develop a single national strategy, a national monitoring and evaluation framework, and a system of local AIDS commissions. The case ends in 2009 with the NAC preparing to assume a new role as one of three Principal Recipients of the Global Fund to Fight, AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The NAC leadership must contemplate how to sustain and further the progress made in scaling up HIV prevention services while taking on new responsibilities as a Global Fund Principal Recipient.

Learning Objectives: To understand the impact of external financing, donor-driven agendas, and a national champion in creating a multisectoral response to HIV in a religiously conservative, lower middle-income country.

This case is the second in a two-part series describing the Avahan Indian AIDS Initiative (Avahan), a large-scale HIV prevention delivery program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Gates Foundation). The case examines Avahan's choice of intervention strategies in the face of the HIV epidemic of India in 2002. It describes Avahan's structure, operations, and execution style, as well as how Avahan's management system for its seven "state lead partners" and 137 district-level nongovernmental organizations was applied initially to scale and later to sustain the delivery model. The case ends with Avahan's director planning to transfer program ownership to the Government of India.

Learning Objectives: To understand the strategies needed to deliver HIV prevention services at scale; how the configuration of management activities can enable rapid scale up of HIV prevention programming; and how these management activities must evolve to sustain delivery at scale.

This case examines the development of a tuberculosis (TB) treatment program in Bangladesh by the non-governmental organization, BRAC, from 1984 to 2006. After providing background about Bangladesh, the burden of TB there, and BRAC, the case examines how this program was piloted and grew to cover a population of 80 million people. It details how BRAC was able to create a TB control program that utilized community health workers to perform most of its essential functions including case finding, directly-observed therapy, identification of complications, and record keeping. The case concludes with a brief summary of BRAC’s expansion to Afghanistan and recently, Africa, and asks the reader to consider the feasibility of this TB care model in other contexts and in other conditions, such as HIV/AIDS.

Timeline of BRAC TB Program Expansions. Source: From One to Many: Scaling Up Health Programs in Low-Income Countries. Edited by Richard A Cash, A Mushtaque R. Chowdhury, George B. Smith, and Faruque Ahmed (2010). Ch 13. Islam A and May MA. Decentralized Management in the Expansion of BRAC's Rural Tuberculosis Program (DOTS). Pgs. 207-214. (Exhibit 3 in "BRAC’s Tuberculosis Program: Pioneering DOTS Treatment for TB in Rural Bangladesh" case.)

Learning Objectives: To understand effective strategies for effectively engaging community health workers to deliver complex medical and public health interventions to large populations in low resource settings.

This case examines BRAC’s experience expanding its rural TB program to the urban environment of Dhaka between 2002 and 2008. The case provides background information about Dhaka and describes what TB services existed at the time. The case then describes the expansion of BRAC’s TB program into Dhaka and details innovations in the Urban program. Students should gain an understanding of how these program modifications were a response to the specific challenges the program faced in the urban setting. The case allows an exploration of how successful health care delivery program adapt to new environments.

This case traces the development of The AIDS Support Organization (TASO), a Ugandan non-governmental organization, from 2001 to 2006. One of the first organizations to become involved in HIV/AIDS in the late 1980s, TASO began as a meeting place for people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, helping people to live positively. The organization provided free counselling, social support, limited medical care, community mobilizing, advocacy and networking. TASO worked alongside government facilities and trained government medical personnel in HIV counselling. After many years, TASO got a new director who brought management skills, a commitment to professionalizing the organization, and a drive to expand services. TASO began incorporating antiretroviral therapy (ART) into its offerings. The ART delivery model combined home and clinic-based care in order to maximize patient adherence. The case follows the development of the organization and scale up of services and raises the question of how to deliver care most cost effectively while maintaining its values and meeting the changing needs of the population and clients.

Learning Objectives: Students should learn how a healthcare delivery organization can expand and evolve over time in response to changes in external context and the needs of its clients; how public and private organizations can coordinate to meet the varied needs of a population; and the importance of leadership, management, and strategic vision in creating successful global health programs.