Touch is committed to expanding access to HIV/AIDS services across sub-Saharan Africa. Studies show that though the region contains 12% of the global population, it bears 71% of the global burden of HIV. Sub-Saharan Africa also faces a severe healthcare worker deficit. To stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to enable equitable access to care, healthcare workers must be allocated efficiently. We used our Prioritization and Optimization Analysis (POA) algorithm to help Data.Fi and USAID build a user-friendly tool that allocates healthcare workers providing HIV/AIDS services. POA supports USAID, the President’s Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and the CDC in their work to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

To treat people with HIV/AIDS and stop the spread, healthcare workers—such as doctors, pharmacists, and community health workers—must be placed where they can most effectively serve those in need.

That’s why Touch collaborated with Data.Fi and USAID, using the algorithm from our POA tool, to create a Human Resources for Health Needs and Optimization Planning Solution. It helps our partners understand the existing need for healthcare workers and to assign them where they are needed most.

Achieving the United Nation’s goal to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 is ambitious but attainable, requiring coordination and partnership across sectors and countries. Touch is proud of our ongoing partnership with USAID to set healthcare workers up for success, and glad to have worked with Data.Fi on this crucial Solution, which will improve lives for years to come.

We established our Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) program over 2 years ago with one of the largest hospitals in Tanzania and our oldest partner, Bugando Medical Centre (BMC). Since then, the program has been improving infrastructure and introducing new practices with BMC’s Engineering Department, so engineers are better able to serve the hospital. As the program continues to expand, we asked the staff about their work and how their experiences on the job has changed since HTM began.

A hospital’s ability to properly treat patients rests on the usability of its equipment, technology, and generator power. This is where the ever-critical engineers come in. Hospital engineers both fix and upkeep all hospital technology and equipment, spanning from defibrillators to oxygen plants. In doing so, they ensure that patients can get the procedures they need in a timely and safe manner.

We’re excited to introduce you to some members of the team!

The first face you see when walking in the door of BMC’s Engineering Department is Mary Fidelis’. She’s been working as a secretary there for 32 years. “[I] make sure that all the jobs in the Department are completed on time,” she explains. “So when the jobs are sealed, I [work to] make sure that the clients are also happy.”

The job tracking system introduced by the HTM program helps her manage work orders efficiently, giving full visibility and control of maintenance activities and ensuring faster turnaround on assignments, so clinicians do not have to wait very long for equipment to be ready to go. She also points to the new workshop (get a tour here!), saying that the more convenient working space has made “the environment [more] conducive and attractive.”

Next, pictured above is Emmanuel Silas, who’s been on the team for almost 4 years as a biomedical engineer. “Our aim is to save the [lives] of our patients, you know. So that’s why I chose to be a biomedical engineer.” His real passion is for upkeeping and fixing cancer treatment equipment. Testing the safety and performance of each machine, which he’s doing in the photo at the top of this news story, is key for making sure that equipment is ready to go.

Now, meet Nziza Rufuto¸ who’s been working as a biomedical technician at BMC for 4 years. “I like when I manage to work on something that becomes a help to someone who is in need,” she says, “when I manage to do that – that’s when I’m happy about my job.” With the HTM program’s introduction of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Nziza says that “you know exactly what you are doing, and you measure what you’re doing and you know where to improve…” Apart from tracking and identifying bottlenecks, KPIs motivate staff by making work more visible and opening space for further growth.

Nziza will be saying goodbye temporarily to the Department this year when she leaves to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering. Her plan is to return to BMC’s Engineering Department with enriched skills after completing her studies (learn more about Nziza’s here!).

Next up, Dianes Moses, also a biomedical technician. Dianes has played a critical role in implementing the Work in Progress room. This room is one of the new workshop’s core elements where the engineers’ work is organized and monitored with visual management boards like the ones in the picture. Like Nziza, she’s also pursuing her degree in Biomedical Engineering. We wish them all the best in their studies!

In the above photo, Senior Biomedical Technician, Everest Magoti, explains how the KPI board works. Magoti has been with the Department for over 20 years, specializing in maintaining ICU and operating theater equipment. When asked why he decided to pursue this career those many years ago, he said there were two reasons: “Of course, [the] first [was] to help the people and [the] second [was] to make long-living medical equipment.”

Finally, Jumanne Seleman, the head of Mechanical Section, has been with the Department as a mechanical technician for 15 years. A champion of KPIs and job tracking, Seleman and his team record and monitor the performance of BMC’s Oxygen plants, ensuring that minimum oxygen purity and pressure levels are maintained to efficiently serve the hospital.

Touch Foundation is pleased to announce that Massimiliano Pezzoli has been appointed Touch Foundation’s Executive Director.

Massi has been with Touch for over 8 years and has effectively led our program efforts for most of that time. Under his program leadership, Touch has built an extraordinary program team and has successfully developed and implemented programs that have improved access to healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa. He has played a major role in in both Touch’s geographic and programmatic expansion.

Celia Felsher, Touch’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said “We are very excited about Massi stepping into the position of Executive Director. Massi will now be responsible for all of the programmatic and operational functions at Touch, working with me and the Touch Board in leading our efforts to continue increasing our impact across sub-Saharan Africa.”

Before joining Touch, Massi was a Senior Manager at McKinsey & Co., where he spent four years serving major clients in the private health sector and in government and regulatory authorities across Europe, America, and the Middle East. Massi holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, an Executive MSc in Health Economics, Policy and Management from the London School of Economics, and an MSc in Aerospace Engineering from the Polytechnic of Milan.

Lowell Bryan, Touch’s Chairman of the Board, stated that “Massi has continually shown his commitment to Touch and our mission and we are looking forward to working with him in his new role.”

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is that healthcare workers, when equitably distributed, make all the difference in saving lives. Unfortunately, they are in short supply around the world, and, more specifically, in sub-Saharan Africa. Touch Foundation has been working for over 15 years to train more and effectively allocate existing healthcare workers in Tanzania and other nearby countries. Unfortunately, a limited health workforce, paired with limited funds to pay healthcare workers, poses severe challenges to equitable care.

With our data-driven Prioritization and Optimization Analysis (POA) tool, also known as WISN+POA, we are supporting the Government of Tanzania (GoT) to solve this problem. Every year, the Government assigns healthcare workers to health facilities around the country, an oftentimes arduous and complex task. With a deficit of healthcare workers to begin with, Government staff need to be especially careful about where to place the healthcare workers who are available. We began collaborating with them in 2015 to make this process more effective. POA is an online tool that uses data to make suggestions on healthcare worker placement based on the healthcare workers available, the amount of need at certain health facilities, and the funds available to pay them.

Excitingly, we just released the beta version of POA that includes additional cadres and district hospitals, making the process even more user-friendly for members of the GoT, which is key to both equitable healthcare access and sustainability of the tool. The WISN+POA beta version was tested in a workshop attended by GoT representatives from different ministries to incorporate any final feedback. Following the workshop, we spoke with GoT staff members to get their thoughts on the update ahead of the official release later this year. Juma Mabrouk, the Human Resource for Health Coordinator at the President’s Office of Regional Administration and Local Governance (PO-RALG) was kind enough to provide a few words on his thoughts about POA, its importance for the GoT, and our collaborations. Here is what he said!

“WISN+POA is fantastic! It is hugely beneficial for the Government of Tanzania (GoT) as it enables the GoT to easily make data-driven decisions about distribution of new and existing healthcare workers where they are needed most across Tanzania.

At PO-RALG, the process for allocation of HRH is very strenuous on our staff and the WISN+POA system automates a lot of the manual processes which can make life much easier for staff and allow them to focus on other important activities within the HRH Planning Process.

The new functionalities incorporated within the WISN+POA system is great, especially the homepage, as it provides a snapshot of the national shortage of health care workers and it can also provide details at the LGA and Facility level.

On behalf of PO RALG (Health), we really appreciate the tireless work and contribution that Touch Foundation are undertaking to ensure the WISN+POA system is successful and sustainable for the foreseeable future.”

We’re excited to continue working with Mr. Mabrouk and all our government partners to ensure that people throughout the country have access to the healthcare workers they need.

Learn more about POA here.

When Regina George began to experience labor pains, the nearest health facility to her was not equipped to care for her complicated twin birth. She needed to get to a higher level facility. Without a way to get there, she began walking home. Christian, a community driver employed by the m-mama program, drove past her at just the right time.

On June 24th of last year, Regina George began experiencing intense labor pains, over a month before her due date. She headed straight for the dispensary near her home in rural Tanzania. During her pregnancy, doctors had guessed she was pregnant with twins, and so when she arrived at the dispensary, the healthcare workers knew they didn’t have the capacity to give her the care she and her babies needed. Thus, they referred her to a higher-level facility in Shinyanga, a larger town about 17 miles away. Without any money to pay for transport, Regina left the dispensary and began walking home.

Christian Mbuligwe saw her just as she reached the town center, breathing heavily through her labor pains. Christian is a taxi driver and, for 2 years, had been employed by Vodafone Foundation’s m-mama program in Tanzania, implemented by Touch Foundation. That means he has the training and skill to provide emergency transport to women and infants experiencing emergencies before, during, and soon after childbirth. He explains that he felt compelled to help. Christian rushed to action, stopped his taxi to pick Regina up and drove her straight to Shinyanga Regional Referral Hospital, the hospital where she had been referred originally.

Christian (left) and another m-mama taxi driver playing with one of Regina’s boys.

Regina was in labor at the hospital for a long time, she remembers, and doctors ultimately opted for an emergency C-section. Three days later, Regina returned home with two healthy twin boys. We recently met up with Regina and Christian, to listen to their story and to hear their perspectives on emergency transport and the m-mama program. They both spoke about the importance of emergency transportation in the rural area. Many women, they explained, don’t have the financial means to pay for transportation to the higher-level facilities, so without the m-mama program, and drivers like Christian, they wouldn’t get the care they need. Christian explains that his m-mama employment has helped advance his own economic position as well.

Regina’s connection to the program was a bit unconventional – usually women in need of assistance (or their healthcare worker) call a toll-free number, speak to a dispatcher who triages them and ultimately arranges transport for them by an m-mama community driver like Christian. We’re proud to say that this process has provided transportation for thousands of mothers and babies in critical condition. We’re also proud of stories like Christian and Regina’s, that demonstrate m-mama’s wide-reaching impact on lives around Tanzania’s Shinyanga Region.