Resources

PATH conducted primary and secondary research to inform a regional priority assessment on diagnostics in sub-Saharan Africa, including desk research and review of global health publications, as well as direct discussions with subnational, national, and regional global health stakeholders.Findings from this assessment have been organized into a review of diagnostic priorities, in addition to a supply security landscape.

Many health facilities in low- and middle-income countries lack access to reliable mains electricity, making the refrigeration of vaccines at appropriate temperatures challenging. A common solution is to use solar direct drive refrigerators. The solar arrays that power solar direct drive refrigerators often produce more energy than the refrigerator requires, and this underutilized energy could be used to power a range of electric devices to improve the service offerings and conditions in the health facility. Potential uses include powering lights, fans, cellular phones, and medical devices such as fetal Doppler heart rate monitors and otoscopes. We tested two energy harvest control (EHC) systems that could send the underutilized power to other devices while prioritizing the power requirements of the vaccine refrigerator. Testing was conducted at health facilities in Senegal. Monitoring of the power diverted by the EHCs to both dump loads and user–selected devices demonstrated that useful amounts of electricity could be harvested. Monitoring of the refrigerator vaccine compartment temperature showed that temperatures remained within the appropriate range during energy harvesting. Informal and structured interviews with health facility staff indicated acceptance of the EHC, appreciation of the additional power provided, perceived improvements in care, and better community/client perceptions of the health facility. These results show that EHCs used with solar direct drive vaccine refrigerators can provide a useful source of additional electricity to health facilities without compromising the primary function of the vaccine refrigerator.

Digital innovations hold the key to overcoming the diverse public health challenges in India, and enhancing health care delivery at scale. To make a significant impact, greater focus should be placed on adopting and scaling up relevant digital solutions in India and beyond.With the vision of catapulting health innovations to solve public health challenges for India and beyond, PATH and C-CAMP are launching a five–year program to support and fast–track demonstration, adoption, and scale–up of market ready digital health solutions to address the pressing needs of health systems.This brochure provides a detailed description of the program, and outlines how the program seeks to create an ecosystem that supports evidence–based digital interventions for sustainable impact through the continuum of health care value chain.

This guide, in French, outlines the health system and context-specific enabling factors and activities to consider when introducing digital health tools. This guide is intended to augment the digital systems and user requirements, which provides a common language for various audiences—program managers, software developers, and implementers of digital systems—to ensure a holistic understanding of the appropriate health information content within the COVID-19 antigen RDT health program area, to catalyze the effective use of these digital systems.

Reimagining Inclusion, PATH's inaugural DEI annual report, takes a holistic look at PATH’s impact—from the communities we serve to our staff and the tools and resources at their disposal.