Publications

    Rosenberg J, Rhatigan J, Kim JY. The Peruvian National Tuberculosis Control Program. Harvard Business Publishing. 2011.Abstract

    This case examines effective public health management strategies by examining the turnaround of National Tuberculosis (TB) Control Program (NTP) in Peru during the 1990s under Director Dr. Pedro Suarez. The case presents background information on the NTP before 1990 and situates its underperformance within the political and economic context of Peru at this time. It describes how Suarez transformed the NTP from an essentially bankrupt program in August 1990 to a model program, using effective management techniques. It concludes with the program struggling to improve outcomes among a group of patients failing its standardized protocols.

    Teaching Note available through Harvard Business Publishing.

    Health Center in Peru
    Health center in Peru; Credit: Julie Rosenberg Talbot

    Learning Objectives: To understand the operations of a national tuberculosis control program and to learn how effective management techniques can be employed in public health programs to improve performance with an emphasis on basic principles of quality improvement.

    Keywords: Program management, leadership, vertical programming, public health, tuberculosis control

    Blumenthal D, Ellner A, Jain S, Rhatigan J. Polio Elimination in Uttar Pradesh. Harvard Business Publishing. 2011.Abstract

    This case describes key elements of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s (GPEI) campaign in India and explores the challenges faced in eliminating polio from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. Throughout the 1990s, India began implementing coordinated national polio immunization days to supplement routine immunization in health clinics in an effort to eliminate polio from the nation. The case provides contextual information about India and Uttar Pradesh as well as polio and polio vaccines. It then examines the roles of key partners in the GPEI, including Rotary International, the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and UNICEF, and it describes the local operational challenges of the mass immunization campaign in Uttar Pradesh. The campaign has been unable to eliminate polio from this state, and the program leaders grapple with ways to improve the campaign’s performance there.

    Teaching Note available through Harvard Business Publishing.

    Comic Book, Crusade Against Polio, Front Cover
    Comic Book, Crusade Against Polio, Front Cover. Source: Rotary International.

    Learning Objectives: To understand the political and operational challenges of implementing a nation-wide disease elimination program and to appreciate how local, contextual factors influence the delivery of health interventions.

    Keywords: Polio elimination and immunization campaigns, supply chain management, global collaboration

     

    Phillips E, Rhatigan J. Treating Malnutrition in Haiti with Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods. Harvard Business Publishing. 2011.Abstract

    This case describes the introduction of ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) to treatment programs for severe acute malnutrition in children six months to five years old. It describes how RUTFs transformed malnutrition treatment in emergency and non-emergency contexts and how their use has evolved since they were introduced in 1999. The case examines RUTF policy in Haiti including the results of a pivotal pilot program and the introduction of RUTFs. The case explores the decision of the chief of Haiti’s Department of Nutrition to use RUTF for the treatment of moderately acute malnutrition in Haiti and leaves readers grappling with the question of how to implement a this policy.

    Teaching Note available through Harvard Business Publishing.

    Model Plumpy’nut Sachet
    Model Plumpy’nut Sachet. Source: http://www.lle.rcs.k12.tn.us/Teachers/guidance_page/Images/plumpybag.jpg. Accessed June 17, 2009. (Exhibit 7 from "Treating Malnutrition in Haiti with Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods" case.)

    Learning Objectives: To understand the global public health approaches to malnutrition and its prevention, and to examine the role of ready to use therapeutic foods in malnutrition treatment and prevention programs.

    Keywords: Childhood malnutrition, health policy implementation

     

    Pabo E, Ellner A, Rhatigan J, Lyon E. Two Years in Hinche. Harvard Business Publishing. 2011.Abstract

    Two Years in Hinche is a brief supplement to HIV Voluntary Counseling and Testing in Hinche, Haiti. The first case describes an underperforming HIV Voluntary Counseling and Testing Program in government run hospital in Hinche, Haiti, and the decision by a government official to invite, Zanmi Lasante/Partners in Health (ZL/PIH), a non governmental organization, to help revamp the program. After a detailed examination of the program and of the ZL/PIH health care delivery model, the case ends with ZL/PIH agreeing to collaborate with the government to revamp the program. This case describes the subsequent steps ZL/PIH took to increase the amount of patients that received HIV counseling and testing by ten-fold, and to begin an HIV treatment program. It details how they were able to adapt their model for the public sector, improve supply chains, integrate staffs, and build community trust.

    Teaching Note available through Harvard Business Publishing.

    VCT Room at Sainte Thérèse Hospital

    Learning Objectives: To examine effective strategies for improving uptake of preventive health services in low-resource settings.

    Supporting Content: This case is the supplement to HIV Voluntary Counseling and Testing in Hinche, Haiti.

    Keywords: Community-based organizations, HIV prevention, government-NGO partnerships

    Cole C, Rosenberg J, Rhatigan J, Weintraub R, Porter ME. HIV Prevention in Maharashtra, India. Harvard Business Publishing. 2011.Abstract

    The case examines Avahan's delivery model for targeted HIV prevention in India within a value-based framework by describing an implementing nongovernmental organization's district level activities. After providing information about the epidemiological, organizational, and political context, the case shows how the nongovernmental organization, Muslim Samaj Prabodhan Va Shikshan Sanstha (MSPSS), is able to tailor a set of activities to match the needs of its target communities under the guidance of one of Avahan's six "state lead partners," Mukta, which is contracted to recruit and manage grantee NGOs. Through a detailed description of MSPSS' activities, the case examines how high-value, comprehensive HIV preventive services can be delivered to a high-risk population. The case ends with MSPSS's leaders challenged to preserve the value of the program as they prepare to transition the program to government ownership.

    Teaching Note available through Harvard Business Publishing.

    MSPSS Ceremony Honoring Female Police Officer
    MSPSS Ceremony Honoring Female Police Officer. Source: MSPSS. (Exhibit 19 from "HIV Prevention in Maharashtra, India " case.)

    Learning Objectives: To understand the role of strategy in health care delivery through an examination of how HIV prevention programs generate value for the populations they serve through their selection and configuration of program activities.

    Keywords: Marginalized populations, targeted interventions, strategy, HIV prevention

    Rosenberg J, Rhatigan J. Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment in Peru. Harvard Business Publishing. 2011.Abstract

    This case traces the development of a multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) treatment program in Peru between 1994 and 1999 by Socios en Salud (SES), a community-based nonprofit organization, in a shantytown of Northern Lima called Carabayllo. After providing some background on existing TB treatment services and the organizational history of SES, it follows the organization up to 1999 and frames its work within the context of international MDR-TB policy. The case presents background information on the epidemiology of TB and MDR-TB in Peru as well as the shantytown of Carabayllo. It describes how SES implemented community-based treatment for cadre of patients with MDR-TB and achieved cure rates comparable with those obtained in the US. The case begins with a vignette that illuminates the problem of MDR-TB from a patient’s perspective and ends with the program needing to strategize about how to scale-up and expand its reach to more patients.

    Teaching Note available through Harvard Business Publishing.

    Outdoor sputum collection booth to prevent TB transmission in (MOH) national hospital in northern shantytown of Peru
    Outdoor sputum collection booth to prevent TB transmission in (MOH) national hospital in northern shantytown of Peru; Credit: Julie Rosenberg Talbot

    Learning Objectives: To understand strategies that innovative programs use to improve access to health care and to explore ways that community health workers can deliver complex medical interventions within well-designed public health programs.

    Keywords: Community health workers, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis treatment, policy change, advocacy

    Kleinman S, Rosenberg J, Harris J, Ellner A. The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) of Uganda. Harvard Business Publishing. 2011.Abstract

    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.

    Teaching Note available through Harvard Business Publishing.

    Training health workers to care for HIV/AIDS patients in Uganda. Credit: Sarah Kleinman; TASO
    Training health workers to care for HIV/AIDS patients in Uganda. Credit: Sarah Kleinman; TASO

    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.

    Keywords: Service expansion, Home- and clinic-based care, HIV prevention and treatment.

    Sullivan E, Drobac P, Thompson K, Rodriguez W. Botswana’s Program in Preventing Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission. Harvard Business Publishing. 2011.Abstract

    This case traces the development of Botswana’s prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) program, from its inception as a pilot program in 1999 through its national expansion in 2002 and its struggle to improve outcomes and integrate with broader maternal and child care services through 2008. After providing some background on Botswana, its demographics and health situation, including HIV/AIDS and that national response, the case provides an overview of PMTCT—a critical challenge in global health—and describes the inception of the PMTCT program in Botswana. Readers see the challenges the program faced upon the initial scale-up and explore the key efforts and advances in process and policy that help the country overcome them and become a well known PMTCT success story. The case ends with the program wrestling with a relatively small group of women and their infants who fell through the cracks in the program and several holes in the health system that are preventing the program from eradicating infant HIV completely and tracking its progress.

    Teaching Note available through Harvard Business Publishing.

     

    PMTCT Programme vehicle. Credit: Erin Sullivan
    PMTCT Programme vehicle. Credit: Erin Sullivan.

    Learning Objectives: To understand the role of a robust strategy, including experimentation, adoption, process improvement, and policy in global health implementation and national scale-up strategies.

    Keywords: Health care policy, Horizontal programming, HIV prevention, Translation of research into practice

    Dhillon R, Rhatigan J. The Measles Initiative. Harvard Business Publishing. 2011.Abstract

    This case examines the work of the Measles Initiative (MI), a consortium of multiple international organizations, in helping catalyze a global effort to reduce worldwide measles-related mortality by expanding delivery of measles vaccinations. After providing background information on the biology of the measles virus and the epidemiology of measles, it recounts the formation of the MI, its partnership structure, its goals, its program design, and its financing. The case focuses on how multilateral global health initiatives coordinate with national governments to improve health care delivery. By 2009, the MI had made significant gains in reducing measles mortality, but was facing decreased funding and was questioning its strategy going forward.

    Teaching Note available through Harvard Business Publishing.

    Clinical Presentations of Measles
    Clinical Presentations of Measles. Image A Source: CDC: Image 132. Public Health Image Library. Available at: http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/details.asp?pid=132. Image B Source: CDC: Image 6887. Public Health Image Library. Available at http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/details.asp?pid=6887. (Exhibit 1 from “The Measles Initiative” case.)

    Learning Objectives: To understand how multi-lateral, international disease-control initiatives are designed, coordinated, and financed and to examine how these initiatives interact with national health systems to achieve their objectives.

    Keywords: Coordination of multilateral global health initiatives and national governments, international partnerships, measles vaccination campaigns, strategy

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