Global Health Delivery Project

A joint project of Harvard Business School's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, and the Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Global Health Equity.

The world is focused as never before on averting millions of preventable deaths from diseases in developing countries. Unprecedented new funding is being invested to provide care to and discover new treatments. While potentially a lifeline for millions, this new focus has also put a glaring spotlight on our ability-or inability-to effectively utilize new and existing treatments and deliver care to those who need it.

The Global Health Delivery Project is focused on systematizing the study of global health delivery and rapidly disseminating knowledge through a range of coordinated initiatives, including research and educational programs in the design and management of health care delivery systems in resource poor settings and the development of online collaboration tools. By taking an overall strategic perspective that emphasizes value, the project aims to bridge the gap between known science and the delivery of care in the field.

Rigorous frameworks for understanding and improving health care delivery systems and a body of field-based case studies (available at no cost via www.ghdonline.org/cases) form the basis for intensive coursework in global health delivery and emphasize leadership, management practices, and thoughtful decision-making in real world situations. Courses and programs target undergraduates, graduate students, and practitioners. The online collaboration site, GHDonline.org, is a web-based platform that hosts virtual communities where health care professionals share expertise and collaborate at no cost. Public communities focus on specific diseases or issues; private forums support clinical decisions and Continuing Medical Education; and private working groups aid various organizations and projects. The site hosts Expert Panels-two-week virtual conferences open to the public that convene thought leaders around a specific, cross-community topic-and publishes peer-reviewed Discussion Briefs-two-page summaries of the most active and rich discussions. GHDonline also partners with organizations like UpToDate (a leading international electronic clinical information resource) to provide informative content to members.

For more on the Global Health Delivery project, see www.globalhealthdelivery.org