kmitch@duke.edu – Page 2 – Duke Global Health Innovation Center

13Dec 2023 by kmitch@duke.edu

QuickStart Team Visit to Zambia University Teaching Hospital, November 30, 2023

News

Zambia was the first QuickStart country to start test and treat using donated Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir for high-risk COVID-19 patients. In a recent visit to Lusaka, Zambia for the 3rd Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA), representatives from the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and Duke University visited the Zambia University Teaching Hospital (UTH). UTH was the first facility in Zambia to offer COVID-19 test and treat services and also served as a warehouse[1] and an initial treatment distribution point, during COVID-19 surges, to other facilities. [caption id="attachment_4872" align="alignright" width="300"] Representatives from Ministry of Health-Zambia, University teaching Hospital, Clinton Health Access Initiative and Duke University during the hospital visit[/caption] At the hospital, the visiting team was welcomed by the Director of Infectious Diseases, Ministry of Health and Zambia National Public Health…

19Apr 2023 by kmitch@duke.edu

COVID GAP Accountability Report, Issue 24

Our Reports

April 19, 2023: COVID GAP Accountability Report Issue 24 Key Changes and Insights Since Previous Report: On April 17th, India reported over 9,000 new COVID-19 cases prompting some parts of the country to reintroduce mask mandates. The XBB.1.16 variant now accounts for roughly 7.2% of sequenced COVID-19 cases in the United States. The World Health Organization’s technical advisory group on COVID vaccine composition met in March to review the performance of updated COVID-19 vaccines. The group released a statement saying that the updated vaccines that contain either BA.1 or BA.4/5 provide better protection than vaccines that contain only the original virus. The FDA authorized a second bivalent COVID-19 vaccine for seniors ages 65+ and those with compromised immune systems. The Duke Global Health Innovation Center is a proud partner of the COVID…

14Dec 2022 by kmitch@duke.edu

COVID GAP Accountability Report, Issues 1-16

Our Reports

Summaries and the full publications of COVID GAP Accountability Reports, Issues 1-16 (covering 5/11/2022 - 12/14/2022) are available at: https://covid19gap.org/news/publications The Duke Global Health Innovation Center is a proud partner of the COVID Global Accountability Platform (COVID GAP). COVID GAP’s Accountability Reports highlight and analyze recent developments, track progress toward national, regional, and global targets, and identify high-priority recommendations for a more effective, efficient, and equitable pandemic response and preparedness. Drawing on data across many sources, our team tracks important measures of progress on commitments and remaining gaps, helping to hold leaders and organizations to account on these actions.

30Jun 2022 by kmitch@duke.edu

New report released by Duke GHIC and Global Health Technologies Coalition examines the WHO Prequalification Program

News

The report, Navigating complexity to improve global access: Supporting a more efficient and effective World Health Organization Prequalification Program, examines successes and pain points of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Prequalification (PQ) Program and offers actionable recommendations to strengthen its role in facilitating global access to medical products. The report—which was informed by a quantitative analysis of the timelines of more than two dozen prequalified products and qualitative interviews with WHO staff, product developers, and regulatory experts—documents how the PQ program has played a vital role in expediting access to safe, effective, and quality-assured health products in low- and middle-income countries and accelerating downstream approvals by their national regulatory authorities. However, it also reveals key operational challenges including a lack of public reporting on expected review timelines for all product…

26Jun 2021 by kmitch@duke.edu

Press Release: Regional Action through Data (RAD)

Blog

Press Release June 26, 2021. The Global Health Innovation Center and Innovations in Healthcare at Duke University have partnered with Broadreach, the InterGovernmental Authority Development (IGAD), the West Africa Health Organization (WAHO), Jembi Health Systems, and with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to address the problem of the limited use of data to drive performance in healthcare service delivery to improve health and development outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our goals and objectives of this project are: To address the problem of the limited use of data to drive decision making through the introduction of disruptive technologies To equip and empower key stakeholders to make data-based healthcare delivery decisions, through aligned and harmonized data collection systems that will be used by regional and national partners for evidence-based decision-making…

17May 2021 by kmitch@duke.edu

Open Letter to the Biden Administration and US Congress Calling for Urgent High-Level US Leadership to Address Escalating Global COVID-19 Vaccine Crisis

Blog

The unprecedented wave of COVID-19 now engulfing India, Brazil, and other nations—and the extreme and widening global inequities in access to vaccines—test our collective conscience and threaten our national security. Worsening mass illness and deaths, a preventable humanitarian catastrophe, are destabilizing, and projected to increase. Urgent action is required to stem global circulation of the virus and the consequent inevitable emergence of new variants, which threaten to undermine Americans’ hard-fought but fragile vaccine immunity, putting lives and economic recovery at risk. President Biden has promised to restore American leadership abroad. The world is now in great need of high-level engagement that up to now has been conspicuously absent—to mitigate death and suffering in the short term, chart a sustained exit from the COVID-19 pandemic in the medium term, and insure…

02Nov 2020 by kmitch@duke.edu

Press Release: New Study Shows Rich Country Shopping Spree for COVID-19 Vaccines Could Mean Fewer Vaccinations for Billions in Low-Income Countries

Blog

Data reveal members of a global pact promising vaccine equity are among those undermining the initiative; frenzy of deals covers some 8.8 billion doses Durham, NC, USA (November 2, 2020)—A new global assessment of purchasing agreements for COVID-19 vaccines reveals that high-income countries, as well as a few middle-income countries flush with manufacturing capacity, have already purchased nearly 3.8 billion doses, with options for another five billion. The analysis, released today by the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, shows that many of these countries will be able to vaccinate their entire populations—and some many times over—before billions of people are vaccinated in low-income countries. “An ambitious effort to create a global system of vaccine equity is being undermined as a handful of countries—including those who made a commitment to equality—secure…

11Jan 2019 by kmitch@duke.edu

Duke Global Health Innovation Center To Develop A “Launch And Scale Speedometer” For Global Health Interventions

Blog

The Duke Global Health Innovation Center (GHIC) will develop a global health innovation ‘Launch and Scale Speedometer’, a three-year, $2 million initiative to identify evidence-based practices and pathways that accelerate the introduction and scale up of life-saving technologies and interventions, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Addressing the lack of high-quality data about best practices to develop, launch, and scale health interventions, such as drugs, devices, and diagnostics, in low- and middle-income countries, the Duke GHIC will collect data on intervention pathway milestones and identify key variables that could accelerate or impede pathways to scale. “This is a great opportunity for the Duke Global Health Innovation Center to leverage our expertise in studying and supporting health innovations to develop stronger data and evidence to inform the broader…

01Oct 2018 by kmitch@duke.edu

Global Health Innovation Center Collaborates with RTI on ReachHealth Project

Blog

[caption id="attachment_520" align="alignright" width="300"] Photo courtesy RTI International[/caption] Research Triangle Park, NC – The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has selected RTI International to implement a five-year initiative to strengthen and improve access to critical health services for Filipino families. Beginning later this year, the Family Planning / Maternal & Neonatal Health Innovations and Capacity Building Platform (ReachHealth) will help Philippine communities reduce unmet needs for family planning services and decrease teen pregnancy and newborn morbidity and mortality. “We share USAID’s vision and goal of empowering local and national stakeholders in the Philippines to improve family planning and maternal and neonatal health services, as well as ensure local health systems are strong and resilient,” said Richard Reithinger, Vice President of Global Health at RTI. “Building on accomplishments made…

01Jan 2018 by kmitch@duke.edu

Press Announcement – Two new awards for Saving Lives at Birth program

Blog

Announcement - January 2018: Duke Global Health Innovation Center wins two new awards totaling over $13 million to enhance global effort to save lives at birth DURHAM, N.C. – Several Duke University organizations, led by the Duke Global Health Innovation Center (GHIC), are partnering with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other global development organizations to evaluate the Saving Lives at Birth program and help organizations scale up maternal and newborn health innovations more quickly and sustainably. Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development seeks groundbreaking prevention and treatment approaches for pregnant women and newborns in poor, hard-to-reach communities around the time of delivery. The effort is funded by a partnership of international development organizations including USAID, the Government of Norway (Norad), the Bill & Melinda Gates…