Primary Health Care and Community Health
Latest News
Johns Hopkins Receives New Grant to Study the Relationship between Heat and Chronic Kidney Disease
Dinesh Neupane, an assistant scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, received a grant, together with the University of Gothenburg, from the Swedish Research Council to examine the relationship between heat and chronic kidney disease among migrant and non-migrant workers in Nepal.
Investing in Community Health Workers: Lessons Learned from the 3rd International CHW Symposium
The 3rd International Community Health Workers (CHW) Symposium was held in Monrovia, Liberia from March 20-24, 2023, under the theme “Advancing Community Health Worker Programs to Build Resilient and Reputable Health Systems That Would Accelerate Primary HealthCare for Universal Health Coverage”.
International Health Faculty Receives Inaugural Toregeldy Sharmanov International Prize
Meike Schleiff, DrPH ’17, MSPH ’13, assistant scientist in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School, received the inaugural Toregeldy Sharmanov International Prize in Healthcare and Nutrition from the T. Sharmanov International Foundation.
Primary Health Care and Community Health in the Health Systems Program
Our work in primary health care (PHC) and community health encompasses technical support, capacity building, evidence generation, program evaluations, intervention development, and teaching – all with a focus on strengthening primary health care systems. Our work focuses on system issues related to service delivery and financing, as well as the development of improved community-based interventions for improving maternal and neonatal health, strengthening human resources for health, using digital health tools to support workers and service delivery, and increasing equity and social accountability.
Our faculty work to strengthen communication bridges between consumers and providers; develop health care interventions around the social, cultural and behavioral norms of the communities they serve; develop and deliver curricula and training programs to enhance knowledge and skills; co-produce relevant and high-quality evidence with and for a range of stakeholders, including governments, development partners, and communities; and develop locally-relevant community participation mechanisms.
Meet some of our primary health care and community health faculty
Anbrasi Edward, PhD, MPH ’96, MBA, MSc, works in health systems research and evaluation addressing primary healthcare and community-oriented systems in global contexts.
Alain Koffi, MD, PhD, MS, is a population health researcher with a focus on the biological causes and social determinants of neonatal and child deaths in low-income countries.
Meike Schleiff, DrPH ‘17, MSPH ‘13, specializes in community health and primary health care with a focus on improving human resource capacity and addressing inequities.
Dinesh Neupane, PhD, studies for global hypertension control, conducts epidemiological research on NCDs, and community healthcare workers at the primary health care level.
Examples of Latest Projects
Strengthen national community-based delivery of primary health and nutrition services in Madagascar: Since June 2018, a JHU team composed of faculty in the Health Systems Program is supporting the government of Madagascar on a new program that focuses on strengthening community-based primary health care and nutrition services.
Technical support for the International Institute for Primary Health Care for Ethiopia: The IPHC-E targets low- and middle-income countries to support PHC policy and program design to achieve the goal of universal health coverage. Bloomberg School faculty work closely with the institute on its institutional growth and global programs, including online curricula and an international conference on PHC.
Resolve to Save Lives: This project is a groundbreaking global health initiative with the goal of reducing preventable deaths from cardiovascular disease, in low- and middle-income countries. Johns Hopkins supports two core programs: hypertension control and sodium reduction.
India Primary Health Care Support Initiative: The IPSI project supports primary health care systems in India through measuring performance and demonstrating ways to improve system performance. IPSI will enable a continuous cycle of ‘demonstration’ ‘measurement’ and ‘recognition’ around performance improvement efforts with a view to unlocking of financial and human resources for high quality PHC in the focus states and beyond.
Featured Publications and Reports
The World Bank – PAHO Lancet regional health Americas commission on primary health care and resilience in Latin America and the Caribbean
The Lancet Regional Health | December 2023
Maternal interventions to decrease stillbirths and neonatal mortality in Tanzania: Evidence from the 2017–18 cross-sectional Tanzania verbal and social autopsy study
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth | December 2023
Voting with their feet: Primary care provider choice and its implications for public sector primary care services in India
Social Science & Medicine | November 2023
Lifestyle management of hypertension: International Society of Hypertension position paper endorsed by the World Hypertension League and European Society of Hypertension
Journal of Hypertension | September 2023
Sustainability of a 12-month lifestyle intervention delivered by community health workers in reducing blood pressure in Nepal: 5-year follow-up of the COBIN open-label, cluster randomised trial
The Lancet Global Health | June 2023