scholarly journals A Typology of Revenue Models for Community Health Worker Programs

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-105
Author(s):  
Richard Zang ◽  
Meryn Robinson ◽  
Stephanie Jeong ◽  
Stephen Suffian ◽  
Khanjan Mehta
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Attrition Rates ◽  
Shared Objective ◽  
Revenue Models

Community Health Workers (CHWs), a presence in almost every developing country, have proven instrumental in improving their communities’ health. CHWs in most countries are volunteers relying on programs with marginal government support and irregular external funding. A lack of incentives is a fundamental challenge to realizing the full potential of CHW programs. CHW programs often suffer from high attrition rates, poor efficiency and lack of coordination and accountability. This article argues that there is a dynamic interdependence between CHW programs and entrepreneurial mobile health (mHealth) systems trying to become economically self-sustaining. This interdependence can be leveraged to design effective, efficient and sustainable mHealth ventures that enable, complement and augment CHW programs with the shared objective of improving the healthcare system in developing countries. This article presents a typology of eight business models where CHWs function as the channels and champions for mHealth ventures. The target audiences of this article are innovators and entrepreneurs seeking to launch sustainable mHealth ventures by leveraging the civic infrastructure of community health workers in developing countries.

scholarly journals Community health workers at the dawn of a new era

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (S3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Zulu ◽  
Henry B. Perry
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
New Era

Abstract Background There is now rapidly growing global awareness of the potential of large-scale community health worker (CHW) programmes not only for improving population health but, even more importantly, for accelerating the achievement of universal health coverage and eliminating readily preventable child and maternal deaths. However, these programmes face many challenges that must be overcome in order for them to reach their full potential. Findings This editorial introduces a series of 11 articles that provide an overview highlighting a broad range of issues facing large-scale CHW programmes. The series addresses many of them: planning, coordination and partnerships; governance, financing, roles and tasks, training, supervision, incentives and remuneration; relationships with the health system and communities; and programme performance and its assessment. Above all, CHW programmes need stronger political and financial support, and this can occur only if the potential of these programmes is more broadly recognized. The authors of the papers in this series believe that these challenges can and will be overcome—but not overnight. For this reason, the series bears the title “Community Health Workers at the Dawn of a New Era”. The scientific evidence regarding the ability of CHWs to improve population health is incontrovertible, and the favourable experience with these programmes at scale when they are properly designed, implemented, and supported is compelling. CHW programmes were once seen as a second-class solution to a temporary problem, meaning that once the burden of disease from maternal and child conditions and from communicable diseases in low-income countries had been appropriately reduced, there would be no further need for CHWs. That perspective no longer holds. CHW programmes are now seen as an essential component of a high-performing healthcare system even in developed countries. Their use is growing rapidly in the United States, for instance. And CHWs are also now recognized as having a critically important role in the control of noncommunicable diseases as well as in the response to pandemics of today and tomorrow in all low-, middle-, and high-income countries throughout the world. Conclusion The promise of CHW programmes is too great not to provide them with the support they need to achieve their full potential. This series helps to point the way for how this support can be provided.

scholarly journals Community health workers at the dawn of a new era: 1. Introduction: tensions confronting large-scale CHW programmes

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (S3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Hodgins ◽  
Maryse Kok ◽  
David Musoke ◽  
Simon Lewin ◽  
Lauren Crigler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
List Type ◽  
New Era ◽  
Strategic Issues

Abstract Background Community health worker (CHW) programmes are again receiving more attention in global health, as reflected in important recent WHO guidance. However, there is a risk that current CHW programme efforts may result in disappointing performance if those promoting and delivering them fail to learn from past efforts. This is the first of a series of 11 articles for a supplement entitled “Community Health Workers at the Dawn of a New Era”. Methods Drawing on lessons from case studies of large well-established CHW programmes, published literature, and the authors’ experience, the paper highlights major issues that need to be acknowledged to design and deliver effective CHW programmes at large scale. The paper also serves as an introduction to a set of articles addressing these issues in detail. Results The article highlights the diversity and complexity of CHW programmes, and offers insights to programme planners, policymakers, donors, and others to inform development of more effective programmes. The article proposes that be understood as actors within community health system(s) and examines five tensions confronting large-scale CHW programmes; the first two tensions concern the role of the CHW, and the remaining three, broader strategic issues: What kind of an actor is the CHW? A lackey or a liberator? Provider of clinical services or health promoter? Lay versus professional? Government programme at scale or nongovernmental organization-led demonstration project? Standardized versus tailored to context? Vertical versus horizontal? Conclusion CHWs can play a vital role in primary healthcare, but multiple conditions need to be met for them to reach their full potential.

scholarly journals Integration of community health workers into health systems in developing countries: Opportunities and challenges

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Collins Otieno Asweto ◽  
Mohamed Ali Alzain ◽  
Sebastian Andrea ◽  
Rachel Alexander ◽  
Wei Wang
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Health Workers

scholarly journals Community Health Workers in Diabetes Prevention and Management in Developing Countries

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halimatou Alaofè ◽  
Ibitola Asaolu ◽  
Jennifer Ehiri ◽  
Hayley Moretz ◽  
Chisom Asuzu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Diabetes Prevention ◽  
Health Workers
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