Blog – Duke Global Health Innovation Center

25Aug 2025 by Melissa Slogan

Students Aid Rural Pamlico County in Improving Health Access

Blog

Now in its fourth year, DGHI’s summer student research project may offer a template for counties facing challenges in providing health services to rural residents. [caption id="attachment_6376" align="aligncenter" width="690"] From left: DGHI professor Diana Silimperi, Duke undergrads Tanya Sachdev and Sophie Li, and Yolanda Cristiani, executive director at Hope Clinic, which provides free care for uninsured people in Pamlico County.[/caption] By Mary-Russell Roberson; This post originally appeared on the Duke Global Health Institute’s website on August 25, 2025. View the original here: https://duke.is/r/8u2y. This summer, Duke sophomore Tanya Sachdev was paddling in a dragon boat in Oriental, North Carolina, when someone on the boat began to experience stroke symptoms. The group paddled to shore and waited for EMS, who took the patient to the nearest hospital – 45 minutes away…

29Apr 2025 by Melissa Slogan

QuickStart COVID-19 Test and Treat resources leveraged to support Marburg and Mpox response in Rwanda

Blog

Rwanda’s Ministry of Health leveraged COVID-19 resources, established through the QuickStart COVID-19 Test-and-Treat Initiative, to respond to the Marburg Virus Disease (MDV) and Claude 1b Mpox outbreak. The Ministry of Health invited the QuickStart team in Rwanda to support various response efforts including development of guidelines and standard operating procedures, supply chain management and strengthening the capacity of healthcare workers to respond to the outbreaks. QuickStart investments have contributed to Rwanda’s health system resilience and pandemic preparedness capacity underscoring the importance of building sustainable investments for resilient health systems. Learn more.

31Mar 2025 by Jessica Harris

Building trust in health

Blog, News

Trust in traditional health authorities and information is declining, while capabilities to create and spread false or misleading content are growing stronger. This is set against a backdrop of increasing skepticism in institutions, artificial intelligence reach, and disasters both natural and human-made. Allowing these trends to continue will have health and social ramifications that are increasingly dramatic, deep, and deadly. Against these currents, many trustworthy individuals and organizations act in physical and virtual communities with good intentions—but insufficient coordination, capacity, and community engagement. This results in duplicative content and capacity-building on some topics, scant support on other topics, and continual, costly reinvention of the wheel. It creates an environment that is not only inefficient and potentially inequitable but also works against trust building as well as positive behavior and policy…

05Nov 2024 by Melissa Slogan

Meet 5 of the Organizations Making an Impact Through the Global Health Innovation Grants Program, Blog Series 4 of 4

Blog

Welcome to the final installment of the Innovations in Healthcare Global Health Innovation Grantees blog series. History of the Global Health Innovation Grants Program Since 2016, The Pfizer Foundation’s Global Health Innovation Grants (GHIG) program has supported community-based initiatives that aim to improve quality of care and strengthen health systems in lower income countries. Innovations in Healthcare supports GHIG grantees by facilitating connections in the ecosystem, hosting GHIG-specific workshops and peer convenings at the Annual Forum, and conducting regular program monitoring to provide portfolio and individual results to the Pfizer Foundation. Now in its eighth year (GHIG8), 20 new recipients of the one-year grant program have each received $100,000 USD to drive innovative solutions that help address vaccine-preventable illness in their communities. [caption id="attachment_5800" align="aligncenter" width="596"] GHIG8 geographic scope. This year’s grantees address a…

29Oct 2024 by Melissa Slogan

Meet 5 of the Organizations Making an Impact Through the Global Health Innovation Grants Program, Blog Series 3 of 4

Blog

Welcome to the third installment of the Innovations in Healthcare Global Health Innovation Grantees blog series. History of the Global Health Innovation Grants Program Since 2016, The Pfizer Foundation’s Global Health Innovation Grants (GHIG) program has supported community-based initiatives that aim to improve quality of care and strengthen health systems in lower income countries. Innovations in Healthcare supports GHIG grantees by facilitating connections in the ecosystem, hosting GHIG-specific workshops and peer convenings at the Annual Forum, and conducting regular program monitoring to provide portfolio and individual results to the Pfizer Foundation. Now in its eighth year (GHIG8), 20 new recipients of the one-year grant program have each received $100,000 USD to drive innovative solutions that help address vaccine-preventable illness in their communities. [caption id="attachment_5800" align="aligncenter" width="596"] GHIG8 geographic scope. This year’s grantees address…

30Sep 2024 by Melissa Slogan

September 2024 Monthly Roundup

Blog

The “Monthly Roundup” is a monthly newsletter dedicated to sharing the latest news from the Duke Global Health Innovation Center and Innovations in Healthcare. View the September 2024 newsletter. Subscribe to the monthly newsletter.

20Aug 2024 by Melissa Slogan

Meet 5 of the Organizations Making an Impact Through the Global Health Innovation Grants Program, Blog Series 2 of 4

Blog

Welcome to the second installment of the Innovations in Healthcare Global Health Innovation Grantees blog series. Access the first blog here. History of the Global Health Innovation Grants Program Since 2016, The Pfizer Foundation’s Global Health Innovation Grants (GHIG) program has supported community-based initiatives that aim to improve quality of care and strengthen health systems in lower income countries. Innovations in Healthcare supports GHIG grantees by facilitating connections, hosting program-specific workshops and peer convenings at the Annual Forum while also conducting regular program monitoring to provide portfolio and individual results to the Pfizer Foundation. Now in its eighth year (GHIG8), 20 new recipients have each received a USD $100,000 one-year grant to drive innovative solutions that help address vaccine-preventable illness in their communities. [caption id="attachment_5800" align="aligncenter" width="596"] GHIG8 geographic scope. This year’s grantees…

31Jul 2024 by Melissa Slogan

Meet 5 of the Organizations Making an Impact Through the Global Health Innovation Grants Program, Blog Series 1 of 4

Blog

The 2024-25 Global Health Innovation Grantees Blog Series 1 of 4, via Innovations in Healthcare History of the Global Health Innovation Grants Program Since 2016, The Pfizer Foundation’s Global Health Innovation Grants (GHIG) program has supported community-based initiatives that aim to improve quality of care and strengthen health systems in lower income countries. Innovations in Healthcare supports GHIG grantees by facilitating connections, hosting program-specific workshops and peer convenings at the Annual Forum while also conducting regular program monitoring to provide portfolio and individual results to the Pfizer Foundation. Now in its eighth year (GHIG8), 20 new recipients have each received a USD $100,000 one-year grant to drive innovative solutions that help address vaccine-preventable illness in their communities. [caption id="attachment_5800" align="aligncenter" width="596"] GHIG8 geographic scope. This year’s grantees address a range of infectious diseases…

29Jul 2024 by Melissa Slogan

The COVID Treatment QuickStart Consortium Newsletter: July 2024 Edition

Blog

This newsletter aims to provide a central hub for information, milestones, and updates regarding the COVID Treatment QuickStart Consortium. The COVID Treatment QuickStart Consortium partners with governments to rapidly introduce and scale access to COVID-19 oral antiviral therapies in vulnerable and high-risk populations presenting with mild to moderate symptoms within five days of symptom onset through a public health test-and-treat model. QuickStart’s top priorities are: Ensuring treatments are accessible in all parts of the world; Preparing for potential future COVID-19 surges; and Building primary healthcare capacity for test-and-treat beyond COVID-19. View the July 2024 QuickStart newsletter. Subscribe to the QuickStart newsletter.

10Jul 2024 by Melissa Slogan

QuickStart’s key insights and recommendations to better respond to future global emergencies

Blog

Market access to COVID-19 oral therapeutics in low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries was delayed. It took nearly fifteen months from the US FDA emergency use listing for nirmatrelvir/ritonavir to be delivered to the first LMIC countries by global buyers, long after the major COVID-19 waves had passed. Vaccines played a major role in managing the pandemic; next time the first line of defense may be therapeutics, reinforcing the need to identify key insights and develop recommendations that will hasten the process in future global emergencies. The QuickStart Consortium undertook a rapid policy analysis to understand global and national level factors that delayed market access to oral antivirals. The analysis established that significant but solvable challenges slowed down the time taken to get the oral antivirals to people when they needed…