The Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition is a global partnership dedicated to making essential reproductive health products available in low- and middle-income countries. As the Coalition’s administrative and operative arm, the Secretariat works to ensure that our partnership functions smoothly and achieves its goals. This report highlights key successes achieved in 2010.

Publication date: 2011

Region: Global

It is widely recognized today that ensuring a reliable supply of quality contraceptives is essential to reproductive health programs. The tagline "No product? No program" is known, understood, and embraced by those working to support reproductive health in the developing world. But this was not always the case. This paper tells the story of how what was once seen only as a technical issue became a global movement.

Author: Solo J

Publication date: 2011

Region: Global

This second annual policy report from the Global Health Technologies Coalition—a group of almost 40 nonprofit organizations working to increase awareness of the urgent need for vaccines, diagnostics, drugs, microbicides, and other products that save lives in the developing world—outlines some of the steps that will help curb unnecessary deaths, extend lives, and secure healthier futures. Serving as a guide for policymakers, the report documents promising policy actions taken over the past year in the areas of US investments in global health and international development, regulatory pathways to ensure the safety and efficacy of health tools, and incentives and innovative financing mechanisms to spur global health product development. This report offers recommendations for how US policymakers can continue to have a lead in improving health worldwide.

Publication date: 2011

Region: North America and Europe

Part of series: GHTC's annual policy reports

This issue of Directions in Global Health features a conversation with Chris Elias on the occasion of his ten-year anniversary as PATH’s president and CEO. It also highlights work to pave the way for a total market approach to family planning in Nicaragua and Vietnam, capitalize on the transformation potential of point-of-care tests, address gender’s impact on health, and design better health information systems for developing countries.

Publication date: December 2010

Region: Global

Part of series: Directions in Global Health

This report is a synthesis of the project Evaluating HPV Vaccine Delivery Strategies in Vietnam, which aimed to identify appropriate strategies for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine delivery in different geographic and socioeconomic conditions. The report summarizes results of both the implementation and research aspects of the project. The document is available as one large file or as four smaller files for easier downloading.

Publication date: December 2010

Region: Asia

In preparation for developing country introduction, PATH conducted a rapid assessment of the feasibility and appropriateness of introducing the SILCS diaphragm into the family planning method mix in Uganda. SILCS, a nonhormonal barrier method, is an opportunity to expand women’s options for contraceptive protection in low-resource settings.

Publication date: December 2010

Region: Africa, Global

PATH's Safe Water Project undertook a household research study in Andhra Pradesh, India, interviewing 1,000 respondents about their water sources, perceptions of water quality, definitions of "safe" water, and water treatment behaviors. This publication presents the five consumer personas that were created from the data to exemplify various aspects of water values.

Publication date: December 2010

Region: Global

Part of series: Safe water briefs

Project Optimize—a collaboration between the World Health Organization and PATH—aims to employ technological and scientific advances in the immunization field. This document describes efforts to define ideal specifications for health products and create a flexible and robust vaccine supply chain that can handle an increasingly large and costly portfolio of vaccines.

Publication date: November 2010

Region: Global

This project Optimize document describes an effort by the World Health Organization, PATH, the Pan American Health Organization, and the Guatemala Ministry of Public Health and Social Services to address challenges related to vaccine introduction. The goal is to develop an information system that will enable the digital recording and transmission of immunization data.

Publication date: November 2010

Region: Global

In this document, project Optimize reviews the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) Vaccine Management Business Improvement Project, which represents an end-to-end reengineering of the US public-sector vaccine supply chain—from vaccine budgeting through storage and distribution. The CDC’s overarching goal was to ensure that vaccine was flowing to the right places at the right time.

Author: Wasserman N

Publication date: November 2010

Region: Global

PATH's Safe Water Project works to catalyze changes within the household water treatment and storage product category, specifically to benefit low-income populations. This matrix portrays a global landscape of technologies both presently existing and under development by numerous researchers and manufacturers.

Publication date: October 2010

Region: Global

Part of series: Safe water briefs

This fact sheet from the Global Health Technologies Coalition explores different incentives and innovative financing mechanisms and their role in global health product development.

Publication date: October 2010

Region: North America and Europe

Disposable-syringe jet injectors have the potential to deliver vaccines safely and affordably. However, there are complex cost considerations that must be taken into account with any new technology. This article, published in Vaccine, estimates the incremental costs of transitioning from needles and syringes to delivering childhood vaccines with disposable-syringe jet injectors in Brazil, India, and South Africa.

Author: Griffiths UK, Santos AC, Nundy N, Jacoby E, Matthias D

Publication date: October 2010

Region: Global

This issue of PATH Today highlights new, innovative technologies coming from the lab and shop at PATH, a spotlight on the December launch of the meningitis vaccine in Western Africa, and a tuberculosis project in Tanzania. Also noted is the 1+1 Challenge, expanding PATH’s presence with new country offices in Africa, and the announcement of a new leader for PATH's India country program.

Publication date: October 2010

Region: Global

Part of series: PATH Today

This poster describes the Smart Electrochlorinator 200 (SE200). The SE200, developed by Cascade Design, Inc. in collaboration with PATH, is a small, community-scale electrochlorination system. Using salt, water, and the resources of a car battery, it creates and dispenses enough chlorine to treat up to 200 liters of water.

Publication date: October 2010

Region: Global

PATH and John Snow, Inc., developed these brief talking points on health care waste management to support advocacy efforts in order to raise awareness about why health care waste management is important and how programs can improve current practices.

Publication date: January 2010

Region: Global

This research paper and strategic briefing confirms the importance of following a replicable process for determining and documenting user requirements for health management information systems via an extensive literature review and expert interviews. It also details recommendations on how to integrate a standard methodology into information and communication technology projects for global health. Find out more about PATH's work in digital health solutions.

Author: Wilson K, Lubinski D

Publication date: September 2010

Region: Global

This document focuses on a method for producing descriptions, models, and figures for logistics management that accurately represent the views and needs of global health professionals. The document can be used by global health practitioners to inform software development related to health systems. Find out more about PATH's work in digital health solutions.

Publication date: September 2010

Region: Global

As part of project Optimize, a five-year human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine demonstration project is under way in Vietnam, Uganda, India, and Peru to generate evidence for government decision-making about successful vaccine delivery strategies to provide HPV vaccine to young adolescent girls. HPV vaccine is a strong candidate for storage and transport in a controlled temperature chain at temperatures higher than the standard 2° to 8°C cold chain storage.

Publication date: September 2010

Region: Global

This fact sheet from the Global Health Technologies Coalition examines how research for new global health tools can help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Publication date: September 2010

Region: Global