Touch Foundation President Co-Authors Article in Health International Journal
The article, "A Practical Approach to Health System Strengthening in Sub-Saharan Africa," describes findings from a joint McKinsey & Company and Touch Foundation study of the health systems challenges in the Lake Zone region of Tanzania.
Healthcare workers in Tanzania face a myriad of daily challenges including the shortage of basic medicines, insufficient support staff, a lack of management and mentors, low salaries and poor information technology.
These systemic deficiencies affect health worker morale and their ability to work efficiently. To understand these challenges, the Touch Foundation, in partnership with McKinsey & Company, conducted a diagnostic study of the health system in the Lake Zone region.
Using field data collection and in-depth analysis, we determined the major weaknesses of the region's health system. The resulting report, Catalyzing Change, outlines interventions, including those for healthcare worker retention, primary care and healthcare management, that would enable the system to deliver healthcare to an additional 3.4 million people in the Lake Zone region.
In keeping with our mission to codify and share knowledge, we have widely disseminated the published findings of this study to others in the global health community. Lowell Bryan, President of the Touch Foundation and a McKinsey Director, co-authored, "A Practical Approach to Health System Strengthening in Sub-Saharan Africa," which appeared in the December 2009 issue of the journal, Health International. In the article, Bryan and the other four McKinsey authors describe our joint efforts to analyze the health systems challenges in the Lake Zone region of Tanzania.
We are now using the findings to create pragmatic interventions and to attract public and private partners for their implementation.