[Open Call] Digital tools for PHC
Call for innovators to aid in expanding the evidence base on digital tools for strengthening primary health care
The Center for Global Digital Health Innovation (CGDHI) at Johns Hopkins University, via a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Primary Health Care team, is looking to expand the evidence base on the impact of digital tools on strengthening primary healthcare. We seek innovators leveraging digital health technologies for primary health care service delivery or client engagement who want to explore collaboration opportunities with CGDHI for monitoring and evaluation support of their digital health innovation.
If you are interested and meet the criteria for submission, please fill out the application form shared below.
Have questions? Review our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) below!
Deadline: 13th September, 2024, 11:59 PM ET (UTC-04)
Criteria for submission:
- Scale: The digital health program is in an early/ mid-level stage of implementation i.e., has an established proof of concept and meets the following criteria:
For provider-focused programs (e.g. Clinical decision support tools, telemedicine systems, scheduling and activity support for providers, etc.), the program must be scaled within at least one district/administrative unit in one country, within a health area.
[If your program is implemented across countries, it must be scaled to at least one district/ administrative unit in at least one of the countries. Please specify the scale of implementation in each country in the application form]
- For client-focused (e.g. targeted communication programs, chatbot-based programs), at least 10% of the targeted population group and in excess of 5000 users.
- For mixed (client and provider-focused programs), the program must be scaled to a minimum within one district/administrative unit in one country, within a health area.
- Region: The interventions are based in a low or middle-income (LMIC) country.
- Health Area: Focus on areas of Reproductive Maternal Neonatal, and Child Health (RMNCH)– including immunization, family planning, nutrition; and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), malaria, tuberculosis (TB), and HIV.
- Types of Digital Innovations
- The innovation should be directly related to the delivery of health services (e.g. clinical decision support tools, scheduling assistants, telemedicine systems, etc.) or engagement of clients in improving health access (e.g. direct-to-client communication tools, personal health tracking, etc.).
- Currently, we are not receiving applications from interventions that are focused only on health systems aspects such as logistics management, HR management, improving data quality, etc.
- We are also not receiving applications from interventions that are focused solely on testing diagnostic and treatment products and wearables where the goal is to test the sensitivity of the products and wearables.
Types of programs we will prioritize:
- Community or facility-based programs using a range of digital tools focused on improving RMNCH quality of care, care-seeking, and outcomes, with or without the use of diagnostic tools.
- Direct-to-client programs that use a range of digital modalities (Chatbots, SMS, IVR, etc.) to improve care-seeking and health behaviors.
We invite applications from the public sector, private sector, and NGO entities, that might use a range of technologies including open-source and proprietary. Note: We are not looking for digital innovations still in the pilot stage.
FAQs
What is the purpose of this call? Can you provide more context?
CGDHI, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), is conducting a landscape analysis to synthesize evidence and identify evidence gaps on the effectiveness of provider- and client-facing digital interventions in improving health outcomes and service delivery in primary health care. With this call, we intend to identify interventions that work in areas of the most critical evidence gaps.
For this, we have two levels of prioritization:
- Where we have adequate evidence on the effectiveness of an intervention, we will populate the evidence map in order to identify the types of interventions that do have an impact. Such interventions can be considered for scaling support by others. (Note: these interventions are not the focus of this call.)
Where highly promising interventions have inadequate evidence of impact, we will consider supporting further research and learning activities to add to the evidence map. (Note: these interventions are the focus of this call.)
Where feasible, we will seek to collaborate with organizations working on similar interventions across multiple settings, to develop more generalizable evidence. Note that responding to this call does not guarantee an investment from CGDHI or BMGF.
What are the benefits of applying for this opportunity?
There are several benefits for organizations that share information about their programs by applying for this opportunity. These include:
- Potential support from CGDHI for monitoring and evaluation of your program if it is shortlisted and prioritized
- Putting your organization and its work on the radar of several stakeholders, including donors
- A platform to highlight the work your organization does and the impact your digital initiative has made
- An opportunity to contribute to the global body of evidence on digital tools for primary healthcare
- Potential collaboration opportunities in the future
What is the timeline for shortlisting interventions for further collaboration?
CGDHI will reach out with initial queries in December/January 2024. Final decisions will be made by the end of the first quarter(Q1) of 2025.
What intervention types are of high priority?
The final selection will be based on:
- Alignment with core themes (as defined in the selection criteria), with an emphasis on RMNCH-related interventions [1st priority area] and broader PHC-focused interventions [2nd priority area]
- Interventions that are highly promising but have inadequate evidence
- Prioritization of organizations that have an existing and feasible plan for scaling up
What is the grant amount and what will it be used for?
This open call for applications seeks to identify organizations interested in evidence generation and in receiving technical support to enhance learning and evaluation within their focus areas. While this call does not directly provide funding for programmatic activities or scaling-up efforts, we anticipate that submitted applications will be shared with various stakeholders, including donors. This exposure may naturally lead to support for implementation and scale-up activities.
What can you expect if your program is selected?
If your program is shortlisted to receive evaluation support, we will collaboratively determine the scope of work for learning and evaluation. The partnership structure, roles and responsibilities, and any concerns around data access and sharing would also be discussed at that point.
What kind of data would we need access to, if your program is selected for further collaboration?
Data requirements might vary considerably based on the learning agenda, data availability, and the intervention type. Broadly, we expect to access data that can tell us about the intervention's reach, the level of engagement with clients/users, the geographic distribution of the intervention, and any health outcomes (if available). We would only request de-identified data and, as far as possible, focus only on aggregate-level data.