Work Raj Panjabi

1 work

1.1 last mile health
1.2 community health academy
1.3 research
1.4 speaking

work
last mile health

panjabi best known co-founder , ceo of last mile health, non-profit organisation working save lives in world s remote communities. co-founded organisation in 2007 small team of liberian civil war survivors , american health workers , $6,000 had received wedding gift.

last mile health partners governments design, scale, , advocate national networks of community health workers (chws). these chws people middle or high school level education employed in own villages , given training , medicines enabling them bring health care doorsteps of neighbors. chws paired clinically-trained supervisors, including nurses , physician assistants, provide chws one-on-one mentorship improve quality of care provide while strengthening clinics chws refer patients. following 2014-16 west africa ebola epidemic, last mile health has partnered government of liberia , other organizations design national community health assistant program, aims train, equip, , pay on 4000 chws, 400 nurses, physician assistants, , midwives supervise them. program intended extend primary health services on 1 million people in liberia s remote communities.

community health academy

in 2017, panjabi , last mile health received $1 million ted prize. articulated in ted talk, panjabi s ted prize wish is: “join recruit largest army of community health workers world has ever known, creating community health academy, global platform train, empower, , connect.” panjabi, last mile health , group of health care, education , technology partners business, philanthropy , government working launch community health academy, aims reinvent education of community health workers – , leaders support them – digital age.

research

panjabi has authored or co-authored on 50 publications. , last mile health s work on chws , rural health care delivery has been published in lancet, journal of american medical association, plos medicine, bulletin of world health organization, , journal of global health.

in 2017, study on last mile health s work liberian health ministry, implementation research on community health workers provision of maternal , child health services in rural liberia , published in special theme issue of bulletin of world health organization focused on universal health coverage , vulnerable populations. authors of study included panjabi researchers liberian health ministry, geisel school of medicine @ dartmouth college, , harvard university. study indicated that, in 1 of liberia s remote districts, professionalized chws coached nurses improved access care qualified providers children suffering diarrhea, malaria, , acute respiratory infection – increasing 60.1, 30.6 , 51.2 percentage points, respectively. furthermore, chws increased rates of pregnant women undergoing clinic-based births skilled provider 84.0 percent. in addition, despite ebola virus disease outbreak, caused substantial declines in health-care utilization in other regions of country, study showed increases in health-care use formal providers fever, acute respiratory infection, , diarrhea among children , facility-based delivery among pregnant women. study noted:

practices programme being scaled on 240 remote communities in adjacent rivercess county. furthermore, several of programme s features, such contracts , cash payments, ensuring chw-to-population ratio of 1:350, targeting of services remote communities , field-based supervision, have helped inform design of liberia s national community health assistant program.

an editorial on barriers universal health coverage co-authored margaret chan, director-general of world health organization, cited 2017 study last mile health s work in liberia. editorial stated: enhanced recruitment, training, supervision, , compensation of community health workers rapidly improved coverage maternal , child health services in rural areas of liberia.

panjabi co-author of report strengthening primary health care through community health workers: investment case , financing recommendations. report found extending reach of primary health care system investing in chw programs can deliver high economic return—up 10:1—and calls on government leaders, international financiers, donors, , global health community broadly take specific actions support financing , scale of chw programs across sub-saharan africa.

speaking

panjabi delivered commencement address @ graduation of harvard medical school in 2015, titled power of selfless acts . delivered testimony @ senate foreign relations subcommittee on africa , global health policy session, progress report of west africa ebola epidemic , arguing investments in rural community health workers can make health systems responsive ebola , future epidemics. panjabi highlighted role of investing in rural community health workers @ time-fortune global forum hosted pope francis in 2016