Boston Children’s Global Health Nursing Fellowship (GHNF) is sharing clinical expertise and capacity support through a nursing-led neonatal and lactation initiative at Chenla Children’s Hospital in Kratie, Cambodia. The project is a partnership with local hospital leadership and staff and reflects a systems-oriented approach to improving care in outpatient, inpatient, NICU, and PICU settings.

Natalie Nanez, a pediatric resident in the Boston Combined Residency Program (BCRP) Global Health Pathway at Boston Children’s Hospital, traveled to Tecpán, Chimaltenango, Guatemala, to partner with Wuqu’ Kawoq Mayan Health Alliance to address Neonatal Mortality in Rural Guatemala. Through clinical, educational, and community-based activities, the project focused on strengthening neonatal and maternal health care in a low-resource setting.

Partnering with the JFK Medical Center in Monrovia, Liberia, global health nurses are supporting pediatric and neonatal nurse capacity building by developing and implementing through competency-based education, simulation training, mentoring, and locally led curriculum development to strengthen clinical care and reduce preventable newborn and child mortality.

Since 2003, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital have been undertaking numerous trials in Tanzania in collaboration with colleagues in the Department of Child Health and Pediatrics at MUHAS. These have included randomized trials of nutrition interventions to improve growth, neurodevelopment and gastrointestinal health.

Dr. Geoffrey Guenther is partnering with Liberian clinicians to analyze years of laboratory data and produce the country’s first antibiogram, turning existing records into life-saving treatment guidance and closing a critical gap in Liberia’s fight against drug-resistant infections.

In partnership with Bugando Medical Centre and the Tanzanian Ministry of Health, this project leverages statistical methods to model surgical complications and evaluates the impact of Early Warning Systems and resuscitation training.

This project is focused one developing and validating computer vision and AI models to non-invasively detect and monitor neonatal respiratory distress in real time.

The BCH Global Pediatric Innovation Scholars program is an initiative created to support partners in implementing a project to improve pediatric clinical care or medical education in their home institutions. Visiting scholars are invited for a month-long observership at BCH and, in the following year, participants meet virtually with BCH collaborators for continued support towards their goals.

BCH GHP has partnered with Bukhara State Medical Institute in Uzbekistan to enhance pediatric hospital care. Our multi-disciplinary team of physicians and nurses visited Bukhara to collaborate on a self study working towards achieving international hospital accreditation.

GHP has been pivotal in post-war Liberia, establishing the first pediatric residency program and training 32 pediatricians locally for the first time in the country's history. Work now focuses on expanding pediatric specialty care, improving newborn care, and supporting ongoing research and training across Liberia and West Africa.

Helping Babies Breath provides birth attendants in Haiti life-saving training in neonatal resuscitation and care.

The Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) Plus was launched at Cheyenne River Health Center to enhance neonatal care for the Lakota Tribe as part of a broader collaboration with Indian Health Services to support community health and education initiatives.

By securing specialized surgical equipment, we supported Dnipro Children’s Hospital in expanding its surgical capacity and providing critical care to thousands of children affected by war-related injuries.

In 2021, clinical leaders at JFK Medical Center (JFK) in Monrovia, Liberia identified targeted neonatal nursing education as a priority initiative. This partnership is a continued collaboration for neonatal nursing support between Boston Children’s Hospital’s Global Health Program (BCH) and JFK.

Established the foundation for a pediatric clerkship at the Rwanda Military Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda that included restarting simulation cases and reviewing the medical education curriculum.

BEPREPARED is a partnership with CARE-India and the Bihar State Ministry of Health to assess, design, implement and evaluate emergency care systems improvements. A multimodal intervention including equipment investment, renovation, just in time teaching and shoulder to shoulder mentorship emergency care was strengthened at five District Hospitals in Bihar State, India serving over 15 million people.

Enhancing pediatric care in Rwanda by partnering with Human Resources for Health and the Rwandan Pediatric Partnership to advance pediatric training by providing distance learning for subspecialty education needs during the COVID pandemic.

Through our Indigenous Health Program, we partner with Indian Health Service to deliver high-quality, localized pediatric care, improving access to care and health outcomes for American Indian children in the Great Plains Area.

A nursing collaboration in Haiti provided education to 46 nurses from 11 hospitals across the country in neonatal intensive care and pediatric emergency/critical care during a 6-month training program. Haitian nurse educators were trained to independently facilitate the course and successfully implemented it in subsequent years.

A novel pediatric and nursing trauma care training program was developed and implemented across Ukraine to strengthen trauma care capacity. Training has been transitioned to locally-led programs integrated within national education systems.

In collaboration with the University of Dodoma, Dr. Mei Elansary worked to identify factors affecting maternal and newborn health in Tanzania and built local research capacity through training workshops, which created a deeper understanding of health needs to guide targeted improvements in neonatal care in Tanzania.

Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) have helped improve the quality, affordability and efficiency of healthcare by synthesizing large amounts of evidence into digestible, practical recommendations for clinicians and patients.

In partnership with BCH’s Community Health Program and Boston Public School (BPS) nursing leadership, the GHP led a collaborative program to support the unique and critical needs of BPS nurses on the front lines during COVID.

Mothers and midwives contribute to research study addressing high rates of neonatal mortality in rural Guatemala.

Global Health Pathway Residents have partnered with a NGO, CloudPhysician, to understand impact of a tele-NICU service in Indian hospitals where neonatal specialists are otherwise inaccessible.

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread globally, the GHP conducted the first large scale study to identify key COVID-related challenges and best practices in humanitarian settings. Conducted for the Global Health Cluster, this study informed WHO and country leaders on effective response strategies in humanitarian settings.

The Human Resources for Health (HRH) Program, a 7-year capacity strengthening partnership between US academic institutions and the Rwandan Ministry of Health, ended in 2019. While the COVID-19 pandemic limited the ability to provide in-person post graduate teaching, our team helped bridge this gap by collobratively developing and implementing hybrid pediatric and public health training for resident physicians.

Globally, the majority of children who seek emergency care present to general emergency departments (EDs) rather than specialized pediatric EDs.

Quality improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric Sickle Cell Disease contribute to improved health outcomes for children in Haiti.

As a resident in the Boston Combined Residency Program, Jeffrey Campbell MD, MPH worked with the organization HAIVN to study hand hygiene improvement tools at the Vietnam National Children's Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. This unique tool engaged families to remind and encourage healthcare workers to perform hand hygiene, significantly increasing hand hygiene rates.

Teach Teens to Fish has partnered with GHP since 2022 with the goal of engaging with teens to help them realize their talents and potentials and promoting a healthy lifestyle. Through workshops and income-generating activities, such as making soap, teenagers in Liberia are provided practical skills to improve their livelihoods, participate in school health clubs, and advance their education.

Enhancing healthcare for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh through targeted training, needs assessments and technical support for midwives, paramedics, and community health volunteers.

Launched in 2020, the Pediatric Overflow Planning Contingency Response Network (POPCoRN) is a multi-institutional initiative that supports pediatric physicians in providing adult care during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on collaboration, education, and health equity.

During his infectious disease global health fellowship, Geoffrey Guenther MD, MPH and his collaborators investigated whether malaria or other parasitic diseases endemic to Malawi are playing a role in less severe illness from COVID-19 or are affecting the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Guenther works with partners in Malawi to support establishing research sites and training the study staff who will be working in the field to increase local infectious disease research capacity.

The Pediatric Global Health Clinical Skills Course at MCRGHP provides practical, hands-on skill training and case-based teaching grounded in international best practices to support pediatric care provision in resource constrained settings.

In early 2020, Dr. Mohsin Ali joined our collaborators in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he taught epidemiology and biostatistics to pediatric residents and gained clinical experience working with partners at Muhimbili University and Muhimbili National Hospital.

Former fellow Dr. Chris A. Rees and his collaborators worked on developing and validating clinical prediction rules to identify children at risk of death or readmission after hospital discharge in sub-Saharan Africa, conducting studies in Liberia and Tanzania to improve post-discharge care.

These milestones were developed with the input of global health educators from around the globe, in order to guide both educators and learners on their journey toward equity and decoloniality in global health.

Community health outreach efforts bring hearing and vision screenings to elementary school students at L'Ecole de Choix in rural Haiti.

Enhancing pediatric cancer care by building a Pediatric Oncology Nutrition Program at Yangon Children’s Hospital in Myanmar to provide personalized counseling and monthly nutrition packages to over 400 children, training staff and caregivers to support malnourished patients.

Boston Children's Dr. Christopher Duggan and Muhimbili University's Dr. Karim Manji work together to address malnutrition, a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in young children around the world. Their more than 20 year collaboration has resulted in new discoveries related to micronutrient supplementation and changed global practices on meeting children's nutritional needs.

Training and education around the identification and management of hospitalized sick children was identified as a priority by the leadership in two oncology wards in the occupied Palestinian Territory.

Developing a digital pediatric records at JFK Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia

In 2016, the MCRGHP partnered with the Laos Friends Hospital for Children (LFHC), in Luang Prabang, Laos, the country's only pediatric hospital outside of the capital city of Vientiane. For four years, the GHP collaborated with LFHC with physicians, nurses and physician assistants to assist in training and mentorship of the Lao clinicians in the care and management of sick or injured children.

Dr. Melanie Dubois contributed to two research studies on maternal, pediatric and adolescent tuberculosis, contributed to improved tuberculosis care delivery for pregnant women and children.

Working with the WHO's High Threat Pathogen team and Albania's Institute of Public Health to evaluate the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines among healthcare workers, focusing on vaccine impact, duration of protection, and effectiveness against emerging strains.

Since 2007, the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda has enhanced its health and wellness program by implementing standardized protocols and training, leading to improved annual health assessments, mental health screenings, and first aid support for its 500 youth residents.

Global Health Nursing Fellow, Erin Babine, facilitated Basic Life Support training for 37 health care professionals in Bangladesh.

Dr. Mazumdar's research in Bangladesh has uncovered a possible connection between arsenic exposure and spina bifida, leading to new health policy resolutions by the Bangladesh Health Ministry focused on folate standards and spina bifida prevention.

With help from a Global Health grant, Dr. Anne Hansen worked with partners to develop an infant warming pad that can keep a newborn warm for hours at a time without the need for electricity, making it ideal for a resource-limited setting, using something all cultures can access: hot water.

During her Global Nursing Fellowship, Marilyn Moonan collaborated with a nursing program in Yangon, Myanmar to guide and support nurses with educational initiatives that will improve nursing practice, clinical skill and patient outcomes.

In 2020, the GHP supported the World Health Organization's COVID-19 Task Team by performing a study in humanitarian settings to understand the operational challenges for COVID-19 response faced by front-line workers.