To help reach the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets by 2025, the public health community must ensure that people living with HIV have access to antiretroviral therapy (ART). Access to this lifesaving medication is one issue; staying on it is another, because continuing ART is not always possible due to a variety of circumstances. In a project FHI 360 recently concluded in Nigeria, we demonstrated how machine learning can complement the efforts of health care workers to help people stay on ART.
Research
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Evidence at the speed of tech
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There are over 200 million women around the world who do not wish to become pregnant and who are not currently using contraception. Helping women to avoid unplanned pregnancies is a best bet in development: It reduces maternal and child death and injury, helps girls stay in school longer, and results in economic growth.
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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has been unlike anything most of us have seen in our lifetimes. Conditions such as stay-at-home orders, wearing masks in public and the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression affect all of us in different ways.
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Reducing commodity costs when scaling up contraceptive implants … A classic chicken vs. egg dilemma
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A version of this post originally appeared on Exchanges, the Contraceptive Technology Innovation Exchange blog. Reprinted with permission.
Listen to an interview with Markus Steiner and Kate Rademacher on the reductions in the prices of implant commodities.
Contraceptive implants have been available for over 30 years and are one of the most effective methods available. Until recently, however, international donors did not procure significant quantities, and use of the method in developing countries was very low. This access barrier was largely due to the high cost of implant commodities. The situation mirrored the classic, paradoxical question: which came first, the chicken or the egg? In this case, without lower commodity prices, procurements of implants would not increase in many international settings. But without higher volumes, manufacturers couldn’t lower their prices and still achieve a sustainable business model.
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We are officially knee-deep into 2018, although many of us are still waiting for spring! The R&E Search for Evidence blog already has 13 new posts written by FHI 360 thought leaders and focused on innovative tools, research and evaluation methodologies, and new evidence related to some of our most pressing human development needs. Here are some of the highlights.
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A version of this post originally appeared on FHI 360’s R&E Search for Evidence blog.
As we work to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to education, it is the responsibility of every funding, implementing and research organization internationally to be asking questions about our own contributions to building equity in education. While a great amount of data gets produced in the course of education projects, only a fraction provides the detail that is needed to assess intervention impact on different equity dimensions. At the technical and implementation level, organizations need to capture and use the necessary evidence to understand and respond to inequity in education provision and outcomes.
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A version of this post originally appeared on FHI 360’s R&E Search for Evidence blog.
Tuberculosis (TB), which in 2016 killed an estimated 1.7 million people, is an ancient disease found in the bones of mummies dug up from Peru. It has evolved with humans, and like other successful organisms, finds ways to avoid death, so it can thrive and spread to the next person. Trying to get ahead of this successful adversary requires pursuing a consistent, aggressive research agenda aided by international collaboration.
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As we close out the year 2017, I want to take a few moments to highlight the 16 posts from our R&E Search for Evidence blog this quarter. We feature posts from FHI 360 thought leaders writing about new and innovative evidence, research and evaluation practice, and analysis of methodologies used to better address global development needs.
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One of the biggest challenges in international development is anticipating when the next pandemic health threat will strike and how we can minimize its damage. Pandemics can be unpredictable, and it is hard to know when and where to focus attention. Having safe, effective drugs ready to use when they are needed saves lives. Clinical trials, which focus on safety and efficacy, are pivotal to the development of these drugs.
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A version of this post originally appeared on FHI 360’s R&E Search for Evidence blog.
Known around the world, Prof. Peter Lamptey is a global health champion in any light. Many of you may know him from his early involvement in the global HIV response or from his fight to raise public awareness of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). I first heard Prof. Lamptey speak about the role of laboratory science in the NCD response at a conference plenary hosted by the African Society for Laboratory Medicine, my former employer. A compelling talk for sure, but notably his plenary was also my first significant introduction to FHI 360’s research.