Sharing lessons learned from COVID-19 vaccine introductions: a global community forum for countries.

To optimize the efficient introduction and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines across the globe during the COVID-19 pandemic, in April 2021 WHO launched a new process and tools for countries to rapidly review the early phase of countries' COVID-19 vaccine introduction. This methodology is called the COVID-19 vaccination intra-action review, also known as mini COVID-19 vaccine post-introduction evaluation (mini-cPIE). As of November 2022, 46 mini-cPIEs had been conducted. In collaboration with Project ECHO, WHO convened and facilitated real-time experience sharing and peer-learning among countries following their mini-cPIEs through a virtual global real-time learning forum. This five-session clinic series was attended by 736 participants from 129 countries. Based on post-session feedback surveys, when asked about the utility of the sessions, half of the participants said that sessions led them to review national guidelines and protocols or make other changes to their health systems. The post-series survey sent following the end of the clinic series showed that at least eight countries subsequently conducted a mini-cPIE after participating in the clinics, and participants from at least nine countries indicated the experience shared by peer countries on the clinic largely benefited their COVID-19 vaccine introduction and deployment. In this article, we highlight the benefits and importance of creating a global experience-sharing forum for countries to connect and share pertinent learnings in real-time during an international public health emergency. Moving forward, it is critical to foster a culture of individual and collective learning within and between countries during public health emergencies, with WHO playing an important convening role.

Mapping the international health regulations monitoring and evaluation framework: an expert consultation, triangulation crosswalk and quantitative analysis.

The International Health Regulations Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (IHRMEF) includes four components regularly conducted by States Parties to measure the current status of International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 core capacities and provide recommendations for strengthening these capacities. However, the four components are conducted independently of one another and have no systematic referral to each other before, during or after each process, despite being largely conducted by the same team, country and support organisations. This analysis sets out to identify ways in which IHRMEF components could work more synergistically to effectively measure the status of IHR core capacities, taking into account the country's priority risks. We developed a methodology to allow these independent components to communicate with each other, including expert consultation, a qualitative crosswalk analysis and a country-level quantitative analysis. The demonstrated results act as a proof of concept and illustrate a methodology to provide benefits across all four components before, during and after implementation.

Development of family medicine education in Moldova with Carelift International.

BACKGROUND: As in other former Soviet republics, Moldova's health system has been dependent upon multispecialty and hospital care. The government has undertaken a planning process to develop a primary care-based system utilizing family physicians. Carelift International and Moldova State Medical and Pharmaceutical University joined together to design an educational program to help create a family medicine specialty in the country. METHODS: Introductory concepts were incorporated into a workshop co-sponsored by the World Health Organization, Carelift International, UNICEF and Moldova Ministry of Health. Faculty teams participated in Carelift's 8-week US program, comprising a range of topics in family medicine: educational development at all levels, public health applications, health care organization, insurance, financing, and technology. Training also included 1 week in Finland, a fellowship in Lithuania, an in-country workshop on rural health, and a supplemental 5-week US immersion program. OUTCOMES: A Department of Family Medicine was established, and a residency program instituted. It has already been strengthened with a 2-week introduction to the specialty, and rotations in family practice centers. Continued improvements and updates are planned. Urban and rural model family practice centers serve concurrent purposes of teaching, demonstrating and health care. Carelift shipped equipment for the principal center and a department library, and is equipping a teaching family practice center near the university. The Society of Family Physicians of Moldova was founded. The introduction of family medicine as a discipline into the health system of Moldova could be a valuable model for other former Soviet republics.