Resources

When sick children arrive at primary health care (PHC) facilities, it is critical that they are appropriately screened, diagnosed, and managed, and if needed, referred to urgent care without delay. Clinical signs alone do not detect all indicators of severe illness in children. In order for health care workers to make the right diagnosis, they must be equipped with the right tools and training, including access to and training for pulse oximeters and clinical decision support tools.In many facilities across low- and middle-income countries, these critical tools are not broadly available, not functioning properly, not suited for newborns and children under one year old, or providers lack appropriate training and support. In addition, there is often no comprehensive policy to help countries select the best devices for their environments, and little information is available on their health impact, cost-effectiveness, or suitability in PHC settings.PATH, with support from Unitaid, and in partnership with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, is implementing the Tools for Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (TIMCI) project to improve access to affordable and appropriate tools to help health care workers identify critically ill children and refer them for treatment without delay.This fact sheet offers an overview of the project and the partnership involved in this work.

As COVID-19 spreads around the world, PATH in India is working to lessen its impact. PATH is partnering with governments, innovators, and peers across the country to plug the gaps in health systems and provide support to develop and strengthen systems that are preventing, identifying, tracking, and responding to the COVID-19 outbreak. This includes policy, preparedness, information, education and communications support, capacity-building and strengthening, digital and data strategies, accelerating innovations, and collaboration with partners.

Medical devices are an important health care investment, supporting effective treatment of a range of medical conditions across the life span. However, in many low- and middle-income countries, they quickly fall into disrepair due to poor management and maintenance over time. The Asset Management Guide offers resources to help track medical device upkeep and, over the long term, improve future procurement decisions.This resource is part of the Oxygen Delivery Toolkit: Resources to plan and scale medical oxygen. The materials provided within the toolkit can be used together or separately, as needed. The complete toolkit is available at www.path.org/oxygen-delivery-toolkit.

Oxygen scale-up requires coordination across seven interrelated areas: policy and political commitment; financing; baseline assessment; quantification; procurement; distribution; and management and training. Within each area of engagement, there are decision points and actions to take, informational tools that can help countries achieve success in that area, and examples from illustrative countries.This report outlines tools and recommendations that exist for each area of engagement. It also introduces the Oxygen Delivery Toolkit: Resources to plan and scale medical oxygen.

It is important to be able to quantify the unmet need for medical devices before seeking to procure new ones. In addition, the price to procure medical devices is often viewed as only the initial capital expense to purchase it. However, medical devices incur operating costs over time. It is essential to understand the initial and long-term costs associated with different purchasing options in order to make informed procurement choices.The Quantification and Costing Tools are Excel-based resources that quantify the potential need for oxygen and pulse oximeters; based on these estimates of need, they calculate the anticipated costs over time for meeting this need with different device types.The resources include:Quantification and Costing Tool: Oxygen Delivery Sources (Excel-based tool)Quantification and Costing Tool: Pulse Oximetry Devices (Excel-based tool)Quantification and Costing Tools for Oxygen and Pulse Oximetry fact sheet - available in English and French (PDF document)This resource is part of the Oxygen Delivery Toolkit: Resources to plan and scale medical oxygen. The materials provided within the toolkit can be used together or separately, as needed. The complete toolkit is available at www.path.org/oxygen-delivery-toolkit.