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Staff from URC's domestic and international projects shared, at the American Public Health Association's (APHA's) 135th Annual Meeting, their perspectives on project experiences linked to the conference theme, "Politics Policy and Public Health." APHA's 2007 meeting was held November 3-7 in Washington, DC.
 The poster, "Applying the Improvement Collaborative Model to Influence National Policy and Implementation of Evidence Based Maternal and Newborn Health Practices in Niger," was presented by Dr. Kathleen Hill of the USAID-funded Quality Assurance Project (QAP). URC's technical support for quality improvement in maternal and newborn and a range of healthcare services continues under the new USAID Health Care Improvement (HCI) Project, the follow-on to QAP. In Niger, QAP has applied the improvement collaborative model to rapidly improve quality of maternal and newborn care via adoption and implementation of Essential Obstetric and Newborn Care standards at national policy and local levels. The improvement collaborative has influenced donor and national political commitment to maternal newborn interventions by providing a model that translates policy into practice.
Dr. Stephen Kinoti, QAP/HCI, gave an oral presentation entitled "Building Provider Competencies in IMCI through CBT: Demonstration of a Six-Day CD-ROM Interactive Course." QAP's development of computer-based training (CBT) version of the IMCI course on CD-ROM is an alternative to the classroom lecture part of the standard WHO/UNICEF IMCI training course. Field testing of the CD-ROM in Kenya in 2005 showed that randomly assigned health workers scored equivalently on post-training knowledge tests as those who were randomly assigned to the longer 11-day standard course. The cost of training using the IMCI CBT is projected to be 12% less than the total cost of training in the standard 11-day course.
Dr. Kinoti also presented a poster entitled "Using the Collaborative Approach to Improve Pediatric Hospital Care in Developing Countries." In 2003-2004, QAP began supporting health ministries in Nicaragua, Niger, and Tanzania to improve the quality of care for hospitalized children through national Pediatric Hospital Care Improvement collaboratives. Compliance with pneumonia standards has risen from below 20% to over 80% in all three countries and reductions in case fatality have been documented.
Larissa Jennings, MHS, of QAP/HCI, presented "Health-Sector Based Stigma and Discrimination: Evaluating Attitudes and Practices of Health Care Providers towards HIV+ Patients in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania." The oral presentation described research conducted by QAP to evaluate the prevalence and manifestations of stigma and discrimination by Tanzanian health care providers toward people with HIV/AIDS.
A presentation entitled "Implementation of a Nutritional Surveillance System at the Local Level in Guatemala during an Emergency Situation" was presented by URC's Dr. María Claudia Santizo, of the USAID-funded Calidad en Salud Project. To cope with the effects of tropical storm Stan, the Guatemalan Ministry of Health, in coordination with PAHO/WHO, UNICEF, and Calidad en Salud, launched an emergency response proposal aimed at strengthening nutritional surveillance to rapidly detect cases of malnutrition and implement measures to improve the food and nutrition security of the affected population.
Lani Marquez, MHS, of QAP/HCI presented, on behalf of Dr. Jorge Hermida and colleagues in Ecuador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, a poster presentation entitled "Improving Systems of Essential Obstetric Care in Ecuador, Honduras and Nicaragua: Results and Challenges." QAP worked with the Ministries of Health in the three countries to undertake a regional essential obstetric care improvement collaborative from 2003-2006. The collaborative was successful in stimulating efforts at the national level to review and update standards of obstetric care.
"Too Smart To Start: Localization of a National Public Health Education Campaign to Prevent Underage Drinking" was presented by William Beard of Macro International, Inc. and URC's Payal Pandit, both of the Health Communications Initiative for the Prevention of Underage Alcohol Use, funded by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The presentation focused on selected communities that received support through the SAMHSA-funded Too Smart To Start (TSTS) campaign. It explored effective approaches that the TSTS sites used to help raise awareness among targeted populations and prevent underage drinking.
Excerpts of the DVD "Para Todos" a product of SAMHSA's Hispanic/Latino Initiative, were shown at the meeting's film festival. ¡Vida en la Comunidad para Todos!/Life in the Community for Everyone! (“Para Todos”) is a bilingual product developed by URC in collaboration with Social & Health Services, Ltd. (SHS) for SAMHSA. Para Todos was created as a tool to help service providers working with Hispanic/Latino parents to address substance abuse prevention and mental health promotion in U.S. Hispanic/Latino communities.
Download presentations
Applying the Improvement Collaborative Model to Influence National Policy and Implementation of Evidence Based Maternal and Newborn Health Practices in Niger, Kathleen Hill, Maina Boucar, Zakari Saley, Mandy Rose, and Jorge Hermida
Building Provider Competencies in IMCI through CBT: Demonstration of a Six-day CD-ROM Interactive Course, Stephen Kinoti,, Bart Burkhalter, Lani Marquez
Health-sector Based Stigma and Discrimination: Evaluating Attitudes and Practices of Health Care Providers towards HIV+ Patients in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Larissa M. Jennings, Rachel Jean-Baptiste, Raz Stephenson, Bart Burkhalter
Implementation of Nutritional Surveillance System at the Local Level in Guatemala during Emergency Situation, María Claudia Santizo, Presented on behalf of the Calidad en Salud team and health officials from the Guatemalan Ministry of Health.
Improving Systems of Essential Obstetric Care in Ecuador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, Jorge Hermida, Luis Vaca, Bernarda Salas, Luis Urbina, Norma Aly, and Lani Marquez
Too Smart To Start: Localization of a National Public Health Education Campaign to Prevent Underage Drinking, William Beard of Macro International, Inc. and URC's Payal Pandit; co-authors: Gwyndolyn Ensley, SAMHSA; Nancy Klein; Gail Dym
Using the Collaborative Approach to Improve Pediatric Hospital Care in Developing Countries Stephen Kinoti, Maina Boucar, Kathleen Hill, Festus Kalokola, Oscar Nunez, Ivonne Gomez, Mandy Rose
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