HAI technical advisors led operations research workshops with government and civil society partners around the world to make sure that local stakeholders have the tools they need to not only study health systems, but actively make them better.
Operations research (OR) is an action-based discipline that combines health research methodologies, such as modeling, with intervention-based quality improvement approaches to improve health care delivery in real time. The core principles of OR are:
- Focus on implementation challenges within existing health programs;
- Inclusion of health program stakeholders to define and develop the scope of research;
- Understanding implementation problems is not enough, research must seek to make programs better
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Starting in 2006, HAI organized and led OR workshops in partnership with government institutes around the world, including Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Nepal, Peru, Sudan, & Timor-Leste. OR workshops not only teach research skills, but often create opportunities for local health system stakeholders to practice methodologies in local health system settings. Trainees left with research proposals that were designed and tested over the course of the workshop.
In Mozambique and Côte d’Ivoire, HAI frequently collaborated on OR projects and training activities with two public research institutes—the Beira Operations Research Center (CIOB) and Côte d’Ivoire’s National Institute of Public Health.
FUNDING
[2019-2020] Global Health Partnerships in Nepal to Build Capacity in Implementation Science.
This project received funding support from the Global Innovation Fund of the University of Washington’s Office of Global Affairs.
[2009-2015] Rapid Scale up for HIV Care and Treatment Services in Northeastern Côte d’Ivoire.
This project received funding support from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).