International Collaborations
We partner with local and international stakeholders including national governments, policymakers, program managers and donors to rapidly translate our results into effective programs and policies.
Supporting the World Health Organization Department of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health
A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health led by Dr. Andreea Creanga and Dr. Beth Stierman have an ongoing agreement with the World Health Organization to provide statistical, analytic, and programming support to the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing (MCA).
About the WHO Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing
- Leads the WHO's work on life course so that every pregnant woman, mother, newborn, child, adolescent, and older person will survive, thrive and enjoy health and well-being.
- Generates programmatic-focused evidence, develops guidelines, norms and standards and support regions and countries in adaptation, implementation and monitoring of person-centered quality and respectful maternal and perinatal care through advocacy, partnerships, policy dialogue and capacity building.
Recent and ongoing projects
- Analyzed data from the Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (SRMNCAH) Policy Survey to understand maternal and newborn health policy trends and investigate policy questions on service coverage and impact, with the goal of informing policy dialogue to strengthen governance and programming for women’s, children’s, and adolescents’ health.
- Supported technical review of the maternal health components of the Service Provision Assessment (SPA) and consolidated recommendations for endorsement at the WHO convened technical advisory group on maternal and newborn measurement - Mother and Newborn Information for Tracking Outcomes and Results (MoNITOR).
- Conducting formative research with end users and a desk review to guide development of a digital resource to help programme managers access and use WHO guidelines, recommendations, and guidance to strengthen maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health programming.
Projahnmo Study Group – Bangladesh
Project for Advancing the Health of Newborns and Mothers (Projahnmo, a word that means generation in Bangla) is a group of researchers and several hundred field staff specializing in cutting-edge maternal, neonatal and child health research.
Established by Abdullah Baqui in 2001, Projahnmo is a groundbreaking partnership between Johns Hopkins University, the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Shimantik, and the Child Health Research Foundation.
Projahnmo specializes in:
- Leading large randomized trials, cohort studies and case-control studies to better understand the major causes of neonatal, child, and maternal morbidity and mortality,
- Developing cost-effective public health interventions against these causes, and evaluating the impact of public health interventions,
- Using results to strengthen health programs and policies in Bangladesh and around the world,
- Applying multi-disciplinary approaches with a team of epidemiologists, statisticians, clinical scientists, social scientists, laboratory scientists, economists, and data system analysts, and
- Training the next generation of young Bangladeshi researchers to be leaders in the public health field.
About Projahnmo
- Several hundred well trained and experienced field staff,
- Strong rapport with the community,
- Surveillance system maintained by a team of dedicated and trained community health workers and managers,
- Field laboratory with specimen processing, storage, microscopic examinations, blood culture, and conventional microbiology,
- Reference laboratories in Dhaka at our partner institutions, Child Health Research Foundation and icddr,b, equipped with molecular testing,
- Links with the Ministry of Health and other key stakeholders in the country, and
- Global collaboration with the WHO, CDC, as well as universities in Bangladesh and abroad.
Watch the complete Projahnmo video series
Collaborating with US Federal and State Health Agencies
Clinicians, public health specialists, and researchers affiliated with Johns Hopkins’ International Center for Maternal and Newborn Health are also collaborating with U.S. federal and state health officials to improve perinatal care and outcomes.
Recent and ongoing projects:
- Collaborated with the Oklahoma Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative, the Texas Department of State Health Services, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to improve the patient safety culture of labor and delivery units by strengthening teamwork and communication. This included developing and piloting a Teamwork toolkit with L&D units participating in the Safety Program for Perinatal Care II Demonstration Project.
- Collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on Maryland’s Maternal Health Innovation Program
Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences – Tanzania
A team of multi-disciplinary investigators from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health led by Abdullah Baqui work with the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and Jhpiego to improve the quality of health services provided to mothers, newborns and children in Tanzania.
About MUHAS
- Leading health sciences university in Tanzania, with schools of medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, public health, and Institutes of Allied Health Sciences and Traditional Medicine,
- Trains Tanzanian healthcare workers at all levels, and
- Conducts epidemiological, social science, clinical, economic, health systems, and policy research to guide practice and policy throughout the country.
International Network of Obstetric Survey Systems
The International Network of Obstetric Survey Systems (INOSS) is a multi-country collaboration formed to facilitate studies of uncommon and severe complications of pregnancy and childbirth.
About INOSS
- Established in 2010 to connect countries with same or similar systems of surveillance for acute severe maternal morbidity or mortality