Health systems
PATH partners locally to integrate service delivery and strengthen systems.
Better data for health systems
PATH promotes integrated health systems and integrated service delivery models. As part of this work, PATH supports decision-makers in using data and evidence to strengthen local health systems and advance health equity.
We partner with countries to improve how data are captured, analyzed, visualized, shared, and used—which can mean the difference between information that is interesting and information that saves lives. To do this, PATH works along the data value chain, from strengthening the systems to collect data to cultivating the skills and culture to interpret and use data.
Our toolkit for change
We apply a mixed-methods toolkit for unpacking complex challenges in the health system, generating actionable insight on what’s working, what’s not, and why. This approach ensures carefully triangulating the data and thoroughly validating our findings.
From 2012 to 2021, PATH worked with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation to evaluate multicountry programs run by the Global Fund and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The Full Country Evaluations and Prospective Country Evaluations were designed as embedded mixed-methods evaluation platforms. They provided timely country-specific evidence to allow for program adjustments and synthesized cross-country evidence. These evaluations helped inform how Gavi and the Global Fund’s processes and policies were enacted in-country to achieve objectives.
PATH’s asset tracker monitors the progress of scaling up evidence-based assets for PATH’s integrated maternal and child health and delivery (IMCHD) program, such as essential commodities, tools, and approaches, including the barriers and aids to achieving scale. The tracker identifies whether there are common and distinct pathways to scale for these interventions, to inform global, national, and local strategies and appropriately address barriers and opportunities for increasing coverage of MNCHN services. Our framework for data collection and analysis, and development of interactive dashboards, allows us to create visualizations that show the pathways toward effective coverage.
PATH leads the monitoring, evaluation, and learning component of the USAID-funded MOMENTUM Routine Immunization Transformation and Equity (M-RITE) project, a global consortium led by JSI Research and Training, Inc., that seeks to reduce the number of unvaccinated, or zero-dose children, between 2020 and 2025. Across the project’s 18 countries, we co-design country-tailored approaches to reach these children and increase COVID‑19 vaccination coverage. PATH leads implementation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, and Vietnam.
PATH’s COVID-19 policy tracker project rapidly collected, cataloged, visualized, and disseminated government policy responses and other information related to maintaining and adapting essential health services during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries rapidly developed policies to limit disruption to essential health services. However, analysis of 198 policies from 53 countries revealed fragmentation and an overall proliferation of policies for maintaining essential services. To advance integrated, person-centered primary health care (PHC), future policy development efforts should aim to consolidate across essential health service areas.
Policies for strong PHC systems are essential to advancing health equity, but they are complex and difficult to design. We created the PHC policy tracker as a consolidated source of information to provide policymakers, advocates, and donors with data to shape policy dialogues—helping not only to identify strengths and weaknesses of PHC policies in their own country and around the world but also to learn from others grappling with similar complex policy challenges.
A study that engaged deeply with caregivers, community members, and health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Nigeria to identify barriers and context-appropriate solutions for immunization inequalities.
This report compiles the latest evidence, country case studies, and resources to support implementers and country governments in introducing and scaling-up.
Human-centered design was utilized to adapt the 'V' brand and service delivery strategy for implementing oral tenofovir-based pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in sub-Saharan Africa.
This journal explores the gap between clinical and real-world PrEP efficacy and introduces innovative approaches like 'V', which reframes PrEP as user-controlled HIV prevention, aligning it with AGYW's self-care routines.
Health Systems
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Elan Ebeling
Program Officer
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Zoe Escalona
Senior Program Assistant
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Ellen Browder-Long
Project Administrator
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Sarah Marjane
Director of Finance & Operations
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Ankita Meghani
Senior Learning Advisor
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Saira Nawaz
Senior Program Officer
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Lydia Nguti
Data Manager
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Alison Osterman
Senior Program Officer
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Nicole Salsbury
Senior Program Officer
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Katharine Shelley
Deputy Director, Integration & Metrics
Spotlight on innovation
Using a human-centered design approach in Zimbabwe, Project “V” puts adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in charge of managing their own health. Through co-creation with health providers and AGYW, the “V” intervention was designed to transform daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) from a medicine to an easy-to-use, trendy self-care tool that resonated with AGYW. PATH developed the learning agenda and led a mixed-methods evaluation of the feasibility, acceptability, and programmatic impact of the “V” intervention.
In Projecting Health, PATH supported a community health intervention and evaluated it using a cluster-randomized controlled trial in 74 villages. During implementation, we partnered with a local civil society organization to create community-led and community-acted videos that conveyed key messages on child health and routine immunization. The videos were screened in mothers’ groups for pregnant and lactating women. PATH evaluated the impact of this intervention on routine immunization and found that although the intervention did not significantly impact routine immunization among the overall population, there was a significant improvement in the vaccination rate of children in hard-to-reach communities.
Public health campaigns aim to deliver essential health services and products, augment or replace routine service delivery, target certain populations, or accelerate progress toward coverage targets. PATH’s Root Cause Analysis and Rapid Evaluation, Action, and Learning toolkits recommend a systematic but flexible approach to identifying the root causes of challenges that impact public health campaigns. The toolkits provide “fit-for-purpose” rapid-testing and adaptive learning approaches to evaluation that integrate measurement and evidence-informed decision-making into daily practice.
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Spotlight on innovation
Using a human-centered design approach in Zimbabwe, Project “V” puts adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in charge of managing their own health. Through co-creation with health providers and AGYW, the “V” intervention was designed to transform daily oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) from a medicine to an easy-to-use, trendy self-care tool that resonated with AGYW. PATH developed the learning agenda and led a mixed-methods evaluation of the feasibility, acceptability, and programmatic impact of the “V” intervention.
In Projecting Health, PATH supported a community health intervention and evaluated it using a cluster-randomized controlled trial in 74 villages. During implementation, we partnered with a local civil society organization to create community-led and community-acted videos that conveyed key messages on child health and routine immunization. The videos were screened in mothers’ groups for pregnant and lactating women. PATH evaluated the impact of this intervention on routine immunization and found that although the intervention did not significantly impact routine immunization among the overall population, there was a significant improvement in the vaccination rate of children in hard-to-reach communities.
Public health campaigns aim to deliver essential health services and products, augment or replace routine service delivery, target certain populations, or accelerate progress toward coverage targets. PATH’s Root Cause Analysis and Rapid Evaluation, Action, and Learning toolkits recommend a systematic but flexible approach to identifying the root causes of challenges that impact public health campaigns. The toolkits provide “fit-for-purpose” rapid-testing and adaptive learning approaches to evaluation that integrate measurement and evidence-informed decision-making into daily practice.