Aaron Katz is a principal lecturer emeritus of Health Services, Global Health (adjunct), and Law (adjunct) at the University of Washington School of Public Health where he teaches several graduate level courses in health policy. He also has an adjunct appointment at the University of Queensland (Australia) School of Public Health. Aaron has held numerous academic leadership positions, including his current role as faculty coordinator of the Health Systems and Policy Concentration of the Health Services Master of Public Health (MPH) program and was founding director of the Leadership, Policy, and Management track of the Global Health MPH program. He was director of the UW Health Policy Analysis Program from 1988 until 2003 and editor-in-chief of the School’s biannual journal, Northwest Public Health, from 1999 to 2008.
Aaron received the American Public Health Association’s Award for Excellence in November 2006 and the Outstanding Teaching Award from the UW School of Public Health in 2004. At the 2011 “State of Reform” Washington Health Policy Conference, Aaron received the Health Reform Leadership Award.
Aaron has developed a deep understanding of the U.S. health care system and its strengths and weaknesses during a career that has spanned 40 years and four “bouts” with health care reform. He has worked in health policy and planning in Washington state since 1978, serving as a health planner, policy and planning consultant, lobbyist, and political adviser. Aaron has directed numerous policy analysis and policy development projects for legislative bodies, state and local public agencies, and private sector clients, including work on health system reform, public health reform, managed care, rural access, HIV/AIDS, workers compensation, long term care, medical economics, and services for people with low incomes. Since 1999, Aaron has collaborated on policy development and advocacy projects with colleagues in various countries in southern Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Japan.
Aaron has served as a peer reviewer of articles for the International Journal for Equity in Health, Health Affairs, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Global Health Action, and the American Journal of Public Health. He has served on numerous community boards, including the Washington State Budget and Policy Center, Northwest Health Law Advocates, Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Health Alliance International.
Aaron received a bachelor of science degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1974 and a certificate [master] of public health degree from the University of Toronto in 1975.
I-TECH India will continue to support a complete array of educational services and technical assistance to 17 Centers of Excellence in India.
In spring 2018, the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) made University of Washington (UW) history when two of its country offices transitioned into independent organizations. I-TECH’s office in India is now the independently run I-TECH India, and its former office in Haiti now operates as CHARESS (Centre Haïtien pour le Renforcement du Système de Santé). Both organizations are sub-contractors on current I-TECH awards.
“With the India and Haiti I-TECH office transition to a local identity, we are applying what we already know about transition to creating new relationships with these independent entities,” says Dr. Ann Downer, I-TECH Executive Director and Professor in the UW Department of Global Health. “To help ensure long-term sustainability, we are working together on business plans and mapping out strategic priorities and mutual interests. This transition has intensified our partnership rather than creating distance.”
A roadmap for the university
I-TECH has worked closely with UW Global Operations Support over the past decade to inform the internal procedures and structures necessary for international office registrations. According to Doug Divine, Director of UW Global Operations Support, this work has promoted operational effectiveness by enabling a safe, compliant, and legal environment for conducting international work.
“I-TECH has been our key partner in the justification and implementation of these registrations, establishing 11 of the 15 entities registered abroad,” says Divine. “It has been so rewarding to have partnered with I-TECH on such an innovative administrative approach. Seeing these registrations become fully functioning independent entities not only fulfills a key mission of I-TECH to help establish sustained capacity where it is needed most, but also reflects the commitment of the UW community toward international engagement.
I-TECH’s close work with Global Operations Support has also prepared I-TECH India and CHARESS for success, helping to create the administrative and policy structures necessary for them to more easily fledge.
New opportunities
The team at CHARESS will continue to oversee clinical mentoring activities at 20 sites and provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Public Health and Population and other implementing partners in Haiti.
The transition of the India and Haiti offices marks new territory in I-TECH’s move toward country ownership, allowing in-country teams to simplify administration and explore funding opportunities that weren’t available to them as UW entities.
The I-TECH India team looks forward to these new opportunities. “This really opens doors to new things,” says Dr. Anwar Parvez Sayed, Clinical Programs Director for I-TECH India. “We were previously looked at as a foreign entity, and we can now apply for local grants.”
I-TECH India has provided technical assistance to 10 Indian Centers of Excellence (CoE) on HIV/AIDS since 2003. In the years ahead, it will continue to support a complete array of educational services and technical assistance to the CoE network in India, plus an additional seven pediatric sites, called pCoE.
“We will now be complying with local Indian regulations, which simplifies things,” says Madhuri Mukherjee, Country Representative of I-TECH India. “Though we no longer have the layer of Washington State and federal compliance, we will remain closely aligned with I-TECH’s and UW’s missions. It’s beneficial from both sides to maintain a close relationship.”
In fact, I-TECH India and CHARESS will each have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with I-TECH/University of Washington. Each MOU will underscore the organization’s shared history with I-TECH and outline elements of an ongoing commitment — including being preferred partners on new funding opportunities.
In Haiti, CHARESS will continue to maintain, train, and deploy health information systems (HIS) such as iSantéPlus and the Système d’Echange d’Information de Santé d’Haïti (SEDISH), a national health information exchange. It will also ensure that the national sites for both receive on-site and remote technical assistance. In addition, the team will oversee clinical mentoring activities at 20 sites and provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Public Health and Population and other implementing partners in Haiti.
“As CHARESS, we look forward to continuing the programming that we have been so proud of,” remarks Dr. Jean-Guy Honoré, CHARESS Executive Director. “Our HIS work, in particular, has had a real impact in Haiti, and our new local status will allow CHARESS to pursue even more opportunities to become a global leader.”
An updated vision of sustainability
In its 16 years of operation, I-TECH’s ultimate goal has always been to strengthen local capacity and to help build sustainable health systems. To that end, I-TECH’s direct service and technical assistance programs are tailored from the initial planning stage to produce projects that can be successfully absorbed into national systems. Its main partner in this endeavor is always the local Ministry of Health.
At the International AIDS Society conference this year in Amsterdam, Dr. Downer presented recently completed research on six transitioned I-TECH programs (of more than 350 that have transitioned), exploring the degree to which investments had been sustained by local partners, as well as identifying the key elements of successful transition.
I-TECH’s experience with transition to local ownership and long-term sustainability of interventions aligns with those presented by Vogus and Graff (PEPFAR Transitions to Country Ownership, June 2015), including the need to plan for:
Communication of transition strategies through high level diplomacy;
Stakeholder participation in transition planning;
Government support of the plan, including alignment with local government policies, practices, and salaries;
Use of planning tools (i.e., a roadmap); and
Adapting approaches to the local context during transition.
“In addition to the known characteristics of successful transition of projects to local ownership, I-TECH has found that we also need to identify a champion within local government to advocate long-term for the adopted interventions,” says Dr. Downer. “We also need to plan intentionally for how much and what type of technical assistance or short-term funding will be needed in order to ensure sustainability.”
Doug Divine sees massive benefits at each stage of I-TECH’s country office relationships, from registration to independence. “Without I-TECH and the projects it has spearheaded, I’m not sure UW would have made the advancements it has made on the international front,” he says. “I-TECH had the vision, the infrastructure need, and the boots on the ground — which gave us impetus to set up structures for the rest of the university. Other departments can now leverage those resources, and now the spin-off offices fulfill our commitment to allow these structures to grow in their own context.”
In honor of National Women’s Day in South Africa on 9 August, members of the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) team in South Africa organized a personal donation to faith-based organization Participate, Empower, Navigate (PEN), which provides services and support to at-risk populations such as the homeless, sex workers, and orphaned children.
Members of I-TECH South Africa organized a personal donation to the Participate, Empower, Navigate (PEN) Organization in honor of National Women’s Day on 9 August 2018.
“We were interested in supporting a program that works with women and we were introduced to the Ladies Arise program at PEN,” explains Lebogang Ntswane, I-TECH South Africa program manager.
Ladies Arise is a community support program for homeless women provided through PEN. Many of the women seeking support from the program have been forced into sex work to make an income. Through Ladies Arise, the women can access a drop-in center where they can use the facilities to shower, do laundry, and eat a meal.
The drop-in center also coordinates activities for the women like art classes, crochet, and Bible study. In addition to the fun and sometimes income-generating programs, Ladies Arise provides the women with social and mental health services, such as counseling with PEN’s volunteer social worker.
PEN is a donor-funded non-profit organization and relies on donations of all kinds to continue offering much-needed services in Pretoria. In addition to fundraising events and a major supermarket that donates food to the center on a monthly basis, PEN also relies on donations of clothing, toiletries, and shoes from the community.
“One of our colleagues had seen the idea of filling handbags with toiletries in a magazine,” says Ntswane, “and we decided it would be a great way to commemorate National Women’s Day and assist the women in our community.”
I-TECH South Africa staffers donated the bags filled with new toiletries, as well as clothing and new packs of underwear, a particularly high-need item at the center.
In addition to donations, I-TECH team members had the chance to sit down with recipients over breakfast to learn about their stories. “One woman reported that she met with the center coordinator and was introduced to the Ladies Arise program. She is now attending a cosmetology course,” says Ntswane. “We are so glad that we found this organization, and we look forward to continuing our personal support of PEN whenever possible.”
The International AIDS Society (IAS) held their 22nd international AIDS conference (AIDS 2018) in Amsterdam 23-27 July 2018. This year, the conference objectives focused on advancing knowledge of HIV through research findings, promoting evidence-based HIV responses tailored to key populations, activating and galvanizing political commitment and accountability, addressing gaps in and highlighting the critical role of HIV prevention, as well as spotlighting the epidemic and HIV response in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Representatives from I-TECH were at the conference to present and discuss their posters:
Ann Downer presents her abstract, “Lessons Learned from Sustained Global Health Investments” at AIDS 2018.
In addition to the two presentations above, I-TECH staff and faculty had a number of other abstracts accepted to the conference:
Phiona Marangwe discusses her poster, “Trust but Verify: Is There a Role for Active Surveillance in Monitoring AEs in Large-Scale VMMC programs?” at AIDS 2018.
“Aligning Botswana’s National HIV Testing Services Guidelines to the Era of Treat All.” (Botswana, Jenny Ledikwe)
This abstract explores Botswana’s experience of adapting the WHO HIV Testing Services (HTS) Guidelines, a significant step in reaching epidemic control of HIV, demonstrating the nation’s commitment to rigorous strategies that ensure all Batswana know their status and have timely access to prevention and treatment services.
Recent public health care reform in Ukraine has called for the growing role of primary health care, task shifting, and decentralization of HIV services while providing care and treatment for people living with HIV (PLWH). In June 2018, the International Training and Education Center for health (I-TECH) Ukraine conducted two back-to-back, five-day in-service training programs on HIV testing services for two cohorts of participants from twelve regions across Ukraine.
Dr. Serhii Rabokon, Head of the Treatment Programs at the CPH of the MoH of Ukraine, delivers a presentation on the nurse’s role in achieving UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets. Photo source: I-TECH Ukraine.
The concept and design of these unique pilot training programs were influenced by the recent reform to actively involve general practice/primary care nurses into the process of achieving UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets in Ukraine.
A group of 10 national HIV and health care reform experts, I-TECH’s international consultant-nurse practitioner, and the I-TECH Ukraine training development team carefully designed the learning objectives and content of the training program with consideration of the specifics of the national HIV epidemic, participant backgrounds, as well as anticipated task shifting. Together, these experts synthesized and presented international and national clinical and nursing best practices in the area of serving PLWH.
Training participants included nurses from primary care facilities, specialized HIV clinics, as well as faculty of seven local nursing colleges, including I-TECH Ukraine’s national partners – Ternopil State Medical University and the Nursing College of Poltava Ukrainian Medical and Dental Academy.
The training programs outlined roles for general practice/primary care nurses in achieving UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets, taught HIV basics, helped develop skills for HIV testing services with rapid HIV test kits, and coached participants on conducting counseling for PLWH using a non-discriminatory, patient-centered approach.
Participants in the second pilot training work in small groups. Photo source: I-TECH Ukraine.
Facilitators used interactive training tools and approaches during the program to fully engage participants and strengthen the capacity of the nursing college’s faculty to teach up-to-date HIV content in an appealing and efficient way.
One of the central elements of the program was to educate the participating nurses about the challenges surrounding HIV-related stigma and discrimination with a major goal to overcome it in the nursing community and encourage respectful delivery of services for PLWH.
“[I-TECH Ukraine and its partners are] doing such a[n] important thing,” says Valentyna Borysova, lecturer of Zaporizhzhia Nursing College. “Educating nurses on HIV has been so much underestimated and under-invested in Ukraine.”
In addition to feeling as though this training addressed a critical gap in education, participants also provided positive feedback about the content and facilitation of the training, especially the parts of the training that were facilitated by the international and national peer nurses.
Participants in the first pilot training focus on a presentation about HIV Fundamentals. Photo source: I-TECH Ukraine.
“The knowledge on testing and post-exposure prophylaxis are badly needed at our clinic,” says Liudmyla Samolelis, Senior Nurse of the Psychiatric Clinic in Poltava, Head of Poltava Oblast Nurse Association. “I plan to conduct an on-the-job training for the nurses, using the materials from the training.”
Due to the success of the pilot trainings, I-TECH Ukraine intends to finalize training materials, institutionalize the course through its local partners, and develop a manual that could be used in different training formats, including state-owned colleges and medical universities. In addition, an ambitious regional rollout of the training program is anticipated during the next year of the project.
On June 1, 2018, the University of Washington’s International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) country office in Haiti officially became a local non-governmental organization (NGO). The office will be rebranded as the Centre Haïtien pour le Renforcement du Système de Santé (CHARESS) and will continue to implement programs to improve HIV services via a trained health workforce, robust health information systems (HIS), and clinical mentoring.
CHARESS will be responsible for maintaining, training, and deploying HIS such as iSantéPlus and the Système d’Echange d’Information de Santé d’Haïti (SEDISH), a national health information exchange, across Haiti and ensure the sites receive on-site and remote technical assistance. The team will also oversee clinical mentoring activities at 20 sites and provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) and other implementing partners in Haiti.
“I-TECH has a mission to support sustainable development,” says Scott Barnhart, MD, MPH, Professor in the Department of Global Health and an I-TECH Principal Investigator overseeing programs in Haiti. “The conversion of the I-TECH country office and launch of a fully independent NGO to take up those activities is testament to I-TECH’s commitment to fostering locally owned and led development.”
The announcement of the shift to local ownership comes after two years of strategic planning by key stakeholders and partners to successfully transition I-TECH Haiti’s country office into an independently functioning NGO. As such, CHARESS will aim to allocate more of its funding to program activities, as well as pursue local funding opportunities restricted to Haitian organizations.
“The programs that are shifting to CHARESS have already proved to have had a dramatic impact on the health care landscape in Haiti,” remarked Jean-Guy Honoré, MD, I-TECH Haiti’s Country Director. “Transitioning of the key programs, specifically our HIS work, to a local ownership will allow CHARESS to become a leader in sustainability on the global stage. We are proud of the work that we have accomplished and look forward to the future.”
For 16 years, I-TECH has helped develop strong national health systems in low- to middle-resource countries while promoting the importance of local ownership as a way to sustain those effective health systems. I-TECH will continue to be a close partner in supporting CHARESS and looks forward to continued collaboration.
Facing Ashitenga Primary School students at the VMMC certificate ceremony are, from left to right: Levi Vries, Education Inspector for Oluno Circuit; Lusia Ndemuweda, I-TECH Demand Creation Coordination Nurse; Ashitenga Principal Edward Asser; Frieda Mupetami, a representative of Okatyali Constituency office; and Life Skills teacher Teopolina Mupetami (in red).
In Namibia, the prevalence of HIV infection among adults aged 15 to 49 is nearly 14%.[1] A key component of national efforts to prevent the spread of HIV is voluntary medical male circumcision, or VMMC, which has proved to reduce the rate of male-to-female transmission by upwards of 60%.
Since 2010, the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) has supported the VMMC efforts of the Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) in the Oshana and Zambezi regions. I-TECH not only supports health care worker training in the provision of VMMC, it is also engaged in critical efforts to create demand for the procedure.
A key element of these efforts is the recognition of schools and school leadership who are supportive of VMMCs. In February, Ashitenga Primary School in Oshana Region was awarded a platinum certificate by I-TECH Namibia for achieving 96% saturation of boys receiving a VMMC. Platinum is the highest honor, with bronze signifying 55-69% saturation, silver awarded for 70-79% saturation, and gold given for 80-89% saturation.
Present at the event was the Oluno Circuit Education Inspector Levi Vries. In his remarks, Mr. Vries encouraged other schools to emulate Ashitenga’s good example. He emphasized the importance of student health to attaining educational goals and urged students to spread the VMMC message to others in their families, villages, and neighborhoods.
As part of the Life Skills curriculum, older boys are instructed on HIV prevention, while the younger boys are taught personal hygiene – messages that are reinforced by I-TECH community mobilizers. Teopolina Mupetami, the Life Skills teacher at Ashitenga, encouraged Life Skills teachers at other schools in the area to support the VMMC program. Ashitenga principal Edward Asser echoed the importance of the school’s recognition; he promised to display the certificate proudly in his office.
Three of the circumcised students were interviewed by the Ministry of Information Communication and Technology, which is charged with spreading the message about “the smart cut” in the government media. The boys responded that “they feel clean and protected from sexual related disease,” said Helena Ferdinand, I-TECH community mobilizer. The students prompted boys at other schools to enroll in the VMMC program and expressed their satisfaction with the service.
“The atmosphere at the handover was joyful and a lot of excitement,” said Ms. Ferdinand. “The principal indicated that they will continue to work hard to get a second platinum certificate.”
Nancy Puttkammer of I-TECH and Rose Boulay of Haiti’s MSPP/PNLS standing next to I-TECH’s poster on MMS of ART at CROI 2018.
Nancy Puttkammer, PhD, MPH, presented a poster at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston on 4-7 March 2018. She was joined by Rose Boulay, a representative from the Haiti Ministry of Health (MSPP) National HIV Program (PNLS). Madame Boulay works on data quality assessment, training for clinical sites, and decision making using data from the iSanté electronic medical record (EMR) system.
The poster, titled “Multi-Month Scripting (MMS) and Retention on HIV Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Haiti,” reflected the collaboration between I-TECH and MSPP to analyze national policies using iSanté data from 85 ART clinics. They examined the MSPP-led MMS initiative to prescribe longer intervals of ART for stable patients. The goal of the MMS approach is to improve patient retention on ART by reducing the burden to patients of coming into the clinic monthly to pick up their ART prescription.
“Our analysis showed impressive uptake of MMS across all health facilities, suggesting that longer intervals are welcomed by providers and patients,” explained Dr. Puttkammer. “Patients prescribed ART for two months or more were 18% more likely to be retained, after adjusting for various patient and facility factors, compared to patients on monthly ART regimens. This is a promising result in terms of the goals of the MMS approach.”
Haiti’s national EMR system allows for the MSPP to conduct data analysis to evaluate the success of health interventions across the entire network of clinics and hospitals in a timely manner. “We are very pleased that we have been able use the iSanté data system to measure the progress of our national HIV and AIDS response, and to share our results with an international audience at CROI. It has been a great experience,” stated Madame Boulay.
Logo courtesy of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH): https://www.cugh.org/.
Representatives from the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) are headed to New York for the 9th Annual Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Conference. The conference—held on March 16-18, with satellite sessions on March 15—will be co-hosted by Columbia University, Stellenbosch University, and the University of Peradeniya.
Featured speakers include Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet, and Natalie Kanem, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund.
Building on the theme of “Health Disparities: A Time for Action,” staff and faculty from I-TECH will be presenting on the following topics:
King Holmes, MD, PhD, founding chair of the Department of Global Health and a co-Principal Investigator of I-TECH’s IAETC award, will join a morning plenary session and discussion about global health disparities. The discussion will be moderated by Director of the Fogarty International Center Roger Glass. Dr. Holmes will be joined for the discussion by Rose Leke, Gairdner Foundation Global Health Committee member and Emeritus Professor at Universite de Yaounde, and K. Srinath Reddy, President of the Public Health Foundation of India.
Kate Wilson, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, is presenting a poster titled “Evaluation of a New Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) Intermediate Course to Strengthen Public Health Preparedness in Tanzania.” The locally adapted course significantly improved trainee knowledge and skills in field epidemiology, and the evaluation also showed evidence of improvement in data quality and performance at trainees’ workplaces and districts.
Lindsay Mumm, MPA, Program Manager, is presenting a poster titled “Creating Relevant Change towards Reaching the UNAIDS 90-90-90 Target with High-Impact Leadership Training – Afya Bora Fellowship in Global Health Leadership.”
In addition to the research being shared at CUGH, I-TECH was represented earlier this month at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston. Nancy Puttkammer, PhD, MPH, presented a poster titled “Multi-Month Scripting (MMS) and Retention on HIV Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) in Haiti.” The retrospective study used data from the iSanté electronic medical record system in Haiti and found promising results that MMS for ART in virally suppressed patients improved retention and engagement in treatment.
About CUGH
The mission of CUGH is to build interdisciplinary collaborations and facilitates the sharing of knowledge to address global health challenges while promoting mutually beneficial, long-term partnerships between universities in resource-rich and resource-poor countries, developing human capital and strengthening institutions’ capabilities to address these challenges. Read more about CUGH: https://www.cugh.org/.
About CROI
Established in 1993, The Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) was provides a forum for scientists and clinical investigators to present, discuss, and critique their research. The goal of the conference is to provide a forum for researchers to translate their laboratory and clinical findings into tangible progress against the HIV pandemic. Read more about CROI: http://www.croiconference.org/.
