Health Systems

Alaq Al-Muwali ’19 is passionate about systems thinking and strengthening health systems. She previously served as a Program Assistant at Partners Iraq, a field office of the DC-based non-profit Partners Global, where she worked to ensure the protection of Iraqi women from violence and discrimination through the promotion of the gender provisions of national Iraqi laws.

Community health programs are cost-effective and backed by local governments and NGOs, but they face sustainability challenges due to funding and political instability. Pratiksha Dhungana ’21 wrote that strengthening CHW initiatives will enable Nepal to improve health outcomes, reduce healthcare disparities, and promote a wellness culture across local communities.

During the early months of COVID-19, Jonatan Konfino ’18 and Silvia Kochen (GBHI fellow) collaborated in Argentina to develop a system with other hospitals that could utilize and optimize available hospital beds in the Buenos Aires region by coordinating efforts across the area.

Jordi Luke ’18 was part of a team at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health that created a primer to help clinical and non-clinical staff in healthcare settings work together to improve quality, satisfaction, and physical accessibility for people with disabilities. The primer provides strategies and resources to eliminate barriers and deliver high-quality, patient-centered care, addressing physical or structural obstacles to healthcare.

Medha D. Makhlouf ’20 urged legal and healthcare professionals to help persuade state Medicaid officials to expand their interpretation of emergency medical conditions. This would enable states to improve access to care for uninsured, lower-income non-citizens with serious health issues.

Daniel Mistak ’23 published an analysis about how the United States federal government allows states to extend Medicaid coverage to incarcerated individuals before their release to improve public safety and health. He explained how new Medicaid waiver opportunities can enhance the relationship between the health and justice systems.

Peter Gan Kim Soon ’20 0 studied how the healthcare system in Malaysia's Kinta District managed COVID-19. Since most confirmed cases were asymptomatic, he discovered that a coordinated and systematic approach to tracing, testing, and isolating close contacts was essential, emphasizing the importance of public health experience in delivering a comprehensive and integrated response to controlling COVID-19.

Megan Srinivas ’20 conducted a scoping review that identified three case studies in diagnostics across different geographic, cultural, and health system contexts. These include malaria testing via schools in Malawi, HPV sample self-collection in Peru, and crowdsourcing human immunodevirus testing in China. The approach offers a unique opportunity to improve public health efforts and increase accessibility in health systems.

Elliot Koranteng Tannor ’19 and his team made history in Ghana with Kumasi’s first-ever kidney transplant—a crucial step toward reducing health disparities faced by patients with end-stage kidney disease. With over 15,400 Ghanaians suffering from kidney failure and limited access to transplants, Elliot emphasizes the urgent need for a national renal transplant program, better specialist training, and policies to promote organ donation.

Claire Thomas '21 promotes healthcare systems' economic equity goals by guiding their spending toward diverse local businesses, directly investing in the local economy, and advocating for public policies that foster more equitable health and economic outcomes.