WHO Task Shifting
Brief Project Description
Sponsor: World Health Organization
Principal Investigator: Alan Greenberg, MD, MPH
Additional Faculty: Amanda D. Castel, MD,MPH, Seble Lemma Frehywot, MD, MHSA, Irene Kuo, PhD, MPH, John Palen, PhD, MPH, PA
Beginning in January 2006, GW faculty from the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Health Policy collaborated with the WHO, the US Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, and numerous collaborating governments and partners to develop a regulatory framework (ie laws and policies) that would support task shifting as a response to the health care worker shortage crisis in the developing world. Task shifting is the redistribution of roles and responsibilities from more highly trained to less highly trained cadres of health care workers, to facilitate the provision of care, treatment and prevention services. Extensive research and site visits to four African countries (Malawi, Ethiopia, Uganda and Namibia) resulted in the successful development of the regulatory framework, which was a critical component of Global Guidelines for Task Shifting released by WHO in January 2007.
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