US Educational Institutions

Peace Care is a model of collaboration that complements well both the larger scale focus of global health programs at academic institutions as well as community health professional groups wishing to address global health disparities through shorter term work.   This model of collaboration is designed to focus work on the community, thus de-emphasizing a service only approach while fostering sustainable solutions.

Collaboration with development agencies, such as the Peace Corps, adds highly competent field workers to your team.  

By leveraging the established trust, infrastructure, and resources of development agencies in the field, such as the Peace Corps, the Peace Care model is well positioned to have an immediate and sustainable impact.  Agency workers, such as Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV), being integrated within the community and trained extensively in cultural competency and local language, are highly qualified field workers.  Peace Care works with these field workers who have training and a background in health, work closely with local stakeholders, understand the local language and culture, and are in a unique position to advocate for the community.  These field workers traditionally conduct projects in a highly sustainable manner by consistently collaborating with a local counterpart.  By working in conjunction with agency workers living within the community and providing them with technical expertise, Peace Care is a significant asset in their ability to foster high impact community health solutions.  In the case of Peace Corps this is critical in the  attainment of the first goal of, "Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women."

Peace Care can assist with the development or amelioration of global health education programs at US academic instutions.

The relationship of a Peace Care Collaborative is extremely beneficial for the training of health care professionals in the U.S..  Studies have shown that physicians in training who gain a global view through a global health experience during their residency training exhibit improved physical exam skills, increased resource consciousness when making diagnostic and treatment decisions, valuable experience working with under-served populations, increased interest in primary care, improved cultural competency, and increased first-hand exposure in working with medical issues that are uncommon in the U.S..  Resident physicians exposed to global health experiences, are, as well, more likely to go on to practice in under-served areas (domestically and internationally).

Peace Care, as well, is one solution to the difficulty that U.S. Academic Programs face in the process of organizing Global Health Tracks and Global Health Experiences.  Peace Care offers consultation for a standardized process for establishing an affiliated site in a manner that fosters community-centered, sustainable projects while providing, for academic programs without global health expertise, the guidance of global public health experience specialists to facilitate the process.  This support is extremely valuable to all academic programs seeking to organize a global health experience while is, as well, beneficial to those with an existing global health structure in the following ways...

The Peace Care model...

  1. Facilitates initial contact with global communities as possible sites for affiliation with interested academic programs.
  2. Is flexible in consideration of the strengths and challenges of individual academic programs in providing an affiliated global community site.
  3. Encourages reliably sustainable solutions in the organization of Global Health programs.
  4.  Provides a structured framework for academic programs that would emphasize the public health components of global health experiences.
  5.  Provides access to developed technology to facilitate long-term collaboration with global community sites.
  6.  Conducts standardized evaluations (process and outcomes) for all affiliated academic programs and host communities.
  7.  Provides reliable and professional translation services for participating programs.
  8. Organizes reliable transportation in country.
  9. Provides assurance of a clear and precise role for the academic program, trainee participants, and the host community.
  10. Assures the safety of all trainee participants through a well-established protocol -- including an established evacuation plan.
  11.  Provides a means of reliable communication for participants.
  12.  Assures a satisfactory living environment of all participants during their global experience to protect the health and safety of the participants.
  13.  Provides standardized tools for the evaluation of the trainee participants themselves.
  14. Facilitates the exchange of ideas and feedback between participating programs including experiences of interventions and organization of educational seminars.
  15. Organizes the dissemination of evaluation outcomes among participating institutions and communities.
  16. Facilitates collaboration between academic programs working in different areas of the world.

Emphasizing a health systems strengthening approach adds considerable value to a traditional global health partnership.

Peace Care implements, within existing health care delivery systems, health collaboratives which enhance new local research and clinical service capacities through skills transference to develop and retain local health care workforce; enhance quality of care; and improve clinical and population health outcomes.  Peace Care assesses the impact of these efforts to foster greater health equity and improved health services outcomes.

Through the Global Community Health Collaborative model, the potential for significant impact comes from the ability to transfer the training capacity of the U.S. institution, in collaboration with local physicians and existing health care workers, to the building of health care capacity within the low and middle income country (LMIC) community.  

Developing process and outcomes evaluation components around global health activities is critical in emphasizing an evidence based approach for present and future work.

Of the 73 billion US dollars invested annually in global health research, less than 10% is devoted to health problems that account for 90% of the global disease burden (Global Forum for Health Research).  

The GCHC model is evaluated through two separate methodologies:  process and outcomes evaluation.

Process Evaluation:  Each phase is critically evaluated qualitatively by all stakeholders involved (community, health workers, PCVs, and investigative team) through focus groups and key informant interviews to gather feedback on the quality of the implementation, suggestions for the refinement of delivery components, information regarding the relationship between program context and process as well as the link between intervention and outcomes, and observations on ways to improve the overall quality of the program. We also assess and document the degree of fidelity and variability in program implementation.  This allows for improvement of the methodology with each subsequent iteration of the collaborative, as well as creates an environment of equal consideration among all stakeholders.

Outcomes Evaluation:  We collect baseline data and develop interventions that are well incorporated into the established health system, so that we may reliably and precisely measure our impact.

Interventions  Evaluation :  

Practitioner level: Number of individuals trained, technical skills quality at initial training and subsequently. 

Population level: Number of patients impacted, positive results, referral rates, and management outcomes. Prevalence data are determined.   

Information Dissemination:  Number of people reached, population surveys assessing knowledge, health system utilization, and satisfaction.

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