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There is little evidence on optimizing the effectiveness and implementation of evidence-based early childhood development (ECD) interventions when task-shifted to frontline workers. In this Methods Forum paper, we describe our adaptation of the International Guide for Monitoring Child Development (GMCD) for task-shifting to frontline workers in Guatemala and India. In 2021-2022, implementers, trainers, frontline workers, caregivers, and international GMCD experts collaborated to adapt the GMCD for a task shifted implementation by frontline workers. We used an eight-step co-creating process: assembling a multidisciplinary team, training on the existing package, working groups to begin modifications, revision of draft modifications, tailoring of visual materials and language, train-the-trainers activities, pilot frontline worker trainings, final review and feedback. Preliminary effectiveness of adaptations was evaluated through narrative notes and group-based qualitative feedback following pilot trainings with 16 frontline workers in India and 6 in Guatemala. Final adaptations included: refining training techniques to match skill levels and learning styles of frontline workers; tailoring all visual materials to local languages and contexts; design of job aids for providing developmental support messages; modification of referral and triage processes for children in need of enhanced support and speciality referral; and creation of post-training support procedures. Feedback from pilot trainings included: (1) group consensus that training improved ECD skills and knowledge across multiple domains; and (2) feedback on ongoing needed adjustments to pacing, use of video-based vs. role-playing materials, and time allocated to small group work. We use the Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications to Evidence-based Implementation Strategies (FRAME-IS) framework to document our adaptations. The co-creating approach we use, as well as systematic documentation of adaptation decisions will be of use to other community-based early childhood interventions and implementation strategies.

Main findings: The International Guide for Monitoring Child Development, an early childhood development support and monitoring tool, was successfully adapted for use by frontline workers in rural India and Guatemala.Added knowledge: Our Methods Forum paper uses a detailed framework to document the collaborative, co-creating process used and the adaptive decisions taken.Global health impact for policy and action: Evidence on how best to adapt and optimize early childhood interventions for frontline workers will be useful or scaling up support for children globally.

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In a globalized world where pathology and risk can flow freely across borders, the discipline of global health equity has proposed to meet this challenge with an equal exchange of solutions, and people working toward those solutions. Considering the history of colonialism, ongoing economic exploitation, and gaping inequities across and within countries, these efforts must be taken with care. The Partners In Health program in Chiapas, Mexico was founded in 2011 by a team of leaders from both the United States and Mexico to strengthen the public health and care delivery systems serving impoverished rural populations. Key to the strategy has been to marshal funding, knowledge, and expertise from elite institutions in both the United States and Mexico for the benefit of an area that previously had rarely seen such inputs, but always in close partnership with local leaders and community processes. With now over a decade of experience, several key lessons have emerged in both what was done well and what continues to present ongoing challenges. Top successes include: effective recruitment and retention strategies for attracting talented Mexican clinicians to perform their social service year in previously unappealing rural placements; using effective fund-raising strategies from multinational sources to ensure the health care delivered can be exemplary; and effectively integrating volunteer clinicians from high-income contexts in a way that benefits the local staff, the foreign visitors, and their home institutions. A few chief ongoing challenges remain: how to work with local communities to receive foreign visitors; how to hire, develop, and appropriately pay a diverse workforce that comes with differing expectations for their professional development; and how to embed research in non-extractive ways. Our community case study suggests that multinational global health teams can be successful if they share the goal of achieving mutual benefit through an equity lens, and are able to apply creativity and humility to form deep partnerships.

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Descrevemos como a organização do sistema de saúde é afetada pelas características da várzea amazônica. Elegemos uma região a oeste do estado do Amazonas que bem caracteriza esse cenário. Entrevistamos gestores de saúde e mapeamos os trajetos percorridos pelos usuários para acessar a rede sanitária. Municípios menores são extremamente dependentes da rede de serviço do polo regional e da capital estadual. O transporte de usuários, à exceção de emergências, é feito por via fluvial com maior tempo e maior custo em relação à via terrestre. O ciclo vazante-cheia também interfere no tempo, no custo e nos agravos prevalentes. Identificamos alguns pontos de tensão entre o instituído normativamente para conformação das regiões de saúde e a realidade regional. Promover saúde na Amazônia passa inevitavelmente pela adaptação e pela resiliência do sistema de saúde no diálogo com as características do território e dos fluxos dos usuários.(AU)

This article describes how the characteristics of the Amazon floodplain affect the organization of local health systems. We chose a region in the west of the state of Amazonas which is characteristic of this situation. We interviewed local health managers and mapped the routes taken by users to access health services. Smaller municipalities are extremely dependent on services in the regional hub and capital of the state. Patients, except emergency patients, are transported via waterways, resulting in longer travel times and higher costs than land routes. The seasonal flooding cycle also affects travel times, costs and prevalent health problems. We identified some points of tension between the rules and regulations governing the configuration of local health regions and the regional reality. Promoting health in the Amazon inevitably requires the health system to adapt and be resilient to local geographical characteristics and patient flows.(AU)

Describimos cómo la organización del sistema de salud se ve afectada por las características de la vega amazónica. Elegimos una región del oeste del Estado de Amazonas que caracteriza bien ese escenario. Entrevistamos a gestores de salud y mapeamos los trayectos recorridos por los usuarios para tener acceso a la red sanitaria. Los municipios menores son extremadamente dependientes de la red de servicio del polo regional y de la capital del estado. El transporte de usuarios, a no ser en casos de emergencia, se realiza por vía fluvial con mayor tiempo y costo con relación a la vía terrestre. El ciclo subida y bajada de las aguas también interfiere en el tiempo, costos y problemas prevalentes. Identificamos algunos puntos de tensión entre lo instituido normativamente para conformación de las regiones de salud y la realidad regional. La promoción de la salud en la Amazonia pasa inevitablemente por la adaptación y resiliencia del sistema de salud en el diálogo con las características del territorio y de los flujos de los usuarios.(AU)

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The purpose of the present work is to study the satisfaction with the working and living conditions as assessed by participants of the Zemsky Doctor program in rural areas. Materials and methods. The study has been carried out by the Tyumen State Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation in association with the Tyumen Public Health Department based on surveying 288 doctors participating in the Zemsky Doctor program in the Tyumen Region (excluding districts). Main results. As a result of the analysis, it has been revealed that one of the main factors of job satisfaction is opportunities of professional and career development. The analysis has shown that on average the program participants give a rather high assessment of the living conditions, although depending on municipal districts the satisfaction considerably differs. Conclusion. The working and living conditions in the rural areas under the study have been grouped according to the respondents' satisfaction. The main factors of dissatisfaction with the working and living conditions in the rural areas included career opportunities, leisure conditions, opportunity for professional growth, and the need for domiciliary duty. The obtained results can be used by the management of both medical organizations and municipal districts to solve the personnel problems in the area of the rural health care when taking relevant management decisions. Substantiation of the study novelty. The Zemsky Doctor program has been in force in the Russian Federation since 2012. Its implementation showed that the program had only partially solved the personnel problem in the area of the rural health care. Some participants of the Zemsky Doctor program prematurely terminated the concluded contracts. In this regard, it is necessary to carry out studies on the reasons of dissatisfaction with the working and living conditions in the rural areas.

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BACKGROUND: In the treatment of depression, primary care teams have an essential role, but they are most effective when inserted into a collaborative care model for disease management. In rural areas, the shortage of specialized mental health resources may hamper management of depressed patients. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to test the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a remote collaborative care program for patients with depression living in rural areas. METHODS: In a nonrandomized, open-label (blinded outcome assessor), two-arm clinical trial, physicians from 15 rural community hospitals recruited 250 patients aged 18 to 70 years with a major depressive episode (DSM-IV criteria). Patients were assigned to the remote collaborative care program (n=111) or to usual care (n=139). The remote collaborative care program used Web-based shared clinical records between rural primary care teams and a specialized/centralized mental health team, telephone monitoring of patients, and remote supervision by psychiatrists through the Web-based shared clinical records and/or telephone. Depressive symptoms, health-related quality of life, service use, and patient satisfaction were measured 3 and 6 months after baseline assessment. RESULTS: Six-month follow-up assessments were completed by 84.4% (221/250) of patients. The remote collaborative care program achieved higher user satisfaction (odds ratio [OR] 1.94, 95% CI 1.25-3.00) and better treatment adherence rates (OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.02-3.19) at 6 months compared to usual care. There were no statically significant differences in depressive symptoms between the remote collaborative care program and usual care. Significant differences between groups in favor of remote collaborative care program were observed at 3 months for mental health-related quality of life (beta 3.11, 95% CI 0.19-6.02). CONCLUSIONS: Higher rates of treatment adherence in the remote collaborative care program suggest that technology-assisted interventions may help rural primary care teams in the management of depressive patients. Future cost-effectiveness studies are needed. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02200367; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02200367 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6xtZ7OijZ).

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BACKGROUND: In August 2014, the Centre for the Studies of Equity and Governance in Health Systems (CEGSS) in Guatemala launched an online platform, which facilitates complaints about health services via text messages. The aim is to collect, systemise and forward such complaints to relevant institutions, and to create a data pool on perceived deficits of health care in rural Guatemala. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if the online platform is an accepted, user-friendly and efficient medium to engage citizens in the reporting of health care deficiencies in Guatemala. METHODS: The general study design of this research was a mixed-method approach including a quantitative analysis of complaints received and a qualitative exploration of the attitude of community leaders towards the platform. RESULTS: User statistics showed that a total of N = 228 messages were sent to the platform in the period August 2014-March 2015. The majority of complaints (n = 162, 71%) fell under the 'lack of drugs, equipment or supplies' category. The community leaders welcomed the platform, describing it as modern and progressive. Despite feedback mechanisms and methods to respond to complaints not yet being fully developed, many users showed a high intrinsic motivation to use the new tool. Others, however, were restrained by fear of personal consequences and distrust of the state's judicial system. Access to mobile phones, reception, and phone credit or battery life did not pose major obstacles, but the producing and sending of correctly formatted messages was observed to be difficult. CONCLUSION: The online platform paired with SMS technology appears to be a viable approach to collect citizens' complaints in health care and connect citizens with relevant institutions. Further studies should be conducted to quantify follow-up activities and the impact on local health care provision.

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Low- and middle-income countries are experiencing serious shortages in meeting health workforce requirements for universal health coverage. We examine how national-level policies can address these deficiencies and support the development of an appropriately skilled health workforce in line with population needs. We discuss three innovative, government-led solutions that are designed to align health workforce training with the demands of universal health coverage. Specifically, we discuss two initiatives to train and retain doctors in rural areas of Thailand, the large-scale training of community health workers within multidisciplinary primary health care teams in Brazil, and the introduction of a postgraduate diploma program in primary care for nurses in India. Several positive outcomes have been associated with these initiatives, including improvements in the rural retention of doctors in Thailand and reductions in infant and child mortality rates in Brazil. However, further research is needed to assess the impact of such initiatives on the long-term retention of workers-particularly doctors-and the adequacy of the training offered to lower-skilled workers to effectively plug medical personnel gaps. Systematic monitoring of program affordability and cost-effectiveness over time must be prioritized, alongside efforts to disseminate lessons learned.

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OBJECTIVE: To examine the willingness to accept new Medicaid patients among certified rural health clinics (RHCs) and other nonsafety net rural providers. DATA SOURCES: Experimental (audit) data from a 10-state study of primary care practices, county-level information from the Area Health Resource File, and RHC information from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. STUDY DESIGN: We generate appointment rates for rural and nonrural areas by patient-payer type (private, Medicaid, self-pay) to then motivate our focus on within-rural variation by clinic type (RHC vs. non-RHC). Multivariate linear models test for statistical differences and assess the estimates' sensitivity to the inclusion of control variables. DATA COLLECTION: The primary data are from a large field study. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Approximately 80 percent of Medicaid callers receive an appointment in rural areas-a rate more than 20 percentage points greater than nonrural areas. Importantly, within rural areas, RHCs offer appointments to prospective Medicaid patients nearly 95 percent of the time, while the rural (nonsafety net) non-RHC Medicaid rate is less than 75 percent. Measured differences are robust to covariate adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that RHC status, with its alternative payment model, is strongly associated with new Medicaid patient acceptance. Altering RHC financial incentives may have consequences for rural Medicaid enrollees.

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Despite enacting a universal healthcare system in 1993, many Colombians do not participate. Understanding perceptions of the system could help the government market certain features or adjust benefits in order to increase enrollment. Using La Guajira, Colombia, as a case study, we surveyed uninsured rural households regarding insurance preferences, values and beliefs, and perceptions of available services. Four hundred heads of households responded in La Guajira, Colombia. Respondents reported high levels of long-term uninsurance. Overall, the quality of services in the government-run system is perceived as better than being uninsured, but there appear to be constraints on enrollment. Rural Colombians value more family coverage and better choice of physicians, but offering better benefits may not be enough. Many cited access barriers, so reducing these barriers may also increase enrollment. Further surveys in other parts of Colombia should be undertaken to confirm results.

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