Resources

Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUs) are essential for delivering intensive care to sick and low-birth-weight newborns, where they play a key role in improving survival outcomes. To strengthen SNCUs, PATH supported state governments in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh by providing essential equipment and capacity-building for health care providers. We conducted assessments and helped identify service-delivery gaps, leading to tailored action plans focused on training and skill enhancement.

PATH’s Mother-Baby Friendly Initiative Plus (MBFI+) is a holistic model designed to strengthen systems of care for small and sick newborns (SSNBs) and their mothers. The model implemented by PATH in India, Nepal, and Kenya integrates Kangaroo Mother Care, nurturing care, psychosocial and lactation support, human milk banking, and malnutrition management.

This seven-minute video provides a brief tutorial on how to use PATH’s Vaccine Cost Calculators for countries eligible for co-funding from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. These Excel-based tools are available in English, French, and Spanish and offer an easy way to compare the costs of certain vaccination programs (either for a new introduction or a product switch) with each vaccine product available to Gavi-eligible countries. The video is in English, with French and Spanish subtitled versions also available.The video explains how to use the calculators for pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and rotavirus vaccines specifically for Gavi-eligible countries. The tools allow country-level decision-makers and implementers, as well as technical assistance partners, to input local data and then compare estimated vaccination program costs for different vaccine products and presentations, exploring multiple vaccine options at once. The calculators enable users to compare the estimated cold chain volume and financial costs of different vaccination programs annually and for a total period of five years. Users also can compare costs for up to three different scenarios of multi-vaccine use for countries that plan to use more than one product at the same time. All cost estimates are provided separately for the country perspective and the combined country and Gavi perspective.

Cyber incidents and attacks are rapidly increasing, impacting countries and systems across multiple sectors. Essential services connected to the internet, such as hospitals and ambulance services, have been significantly affected. The data security status of digital health systems in Africa is improving. But it faces several challenges, including lack of policies focused on data security for health, limited resources, inadequate infrastructure, and a shortage of skilled personnel across health systems levels.In 2024, PATH supported data security capacity-strengthening activities in three countries across West, Central, and Southern Africa.Discussions involving stakeholders in these countries identified potential areas for data security support. These include enhancing data governance through developing health data privacy, confidentiality, and security guidelines; establishing structures for sustaining a secure data environment; emphasizing the importance of conducting scans of electronic health information systems to identify vulnerabilities and best practices; and working collaboratively with in-country stakeholders to ensure a progressively high standard of data security and privacy.

In 2014, PATH conducted research and interviews to understand a key question of the time: why was it challenging to scale digital health interventions in low- and middle-income countries?This research resulted in the publication The Journey to Scale, a reflection on why common information and communication technology (ICT) approaches to support health programs were not working at scale.Since the publication of The Journey to Scale a decade ago, much has changed. Today, digital technology is even more present in our lives and is an integral part of health care delivery in many geographies. And, while not all stakeholders and partners have taken the same actions and countries have not universally experienced the same level of progress, improved collaboration and implementation practices have helped to advance the quality and accessibility of health care in the digital age. But how far have we come in the journey to move beyond isolated, small-scale pilots to integrated information systems that are driven by local leaders and enabled by committed, long-term funding and robust governance mechanisms?As we reflect on and celebrate the progress and evolution of digital transformation in the global health sector, we are also looking at how we can further improve health and lives with digital tools and the health data that is now more accessible and usable because of these digital tools. This report is intended to provide a high-level overview of key trends and shifts in global digital health practice over the last ten years and provide reflections on where progress can be accelerated in future years by addressing ongoing challenges such as lack of data interoperability, insufficient cybersecurity policies and practices, and the need for sustainable financing models.