International Association of Public Health Logisiticians
IAPHL hosts monthly facilitated discussions about health supply chain logistics on its listserv. Below are summaries of the discussions, with excerpted comments from IAPHL members.
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June-July 2017: With this discussion topic, we wanted to explore options for triangulating data to better inform immunization service delivery planning from a program perspective and how to link it to coverage rates. This discussion sparked a lot of ideas about how to get more accurate target population numbers, data... Read more
Technical areas: n/a
May-June 2017: A collection of experts led the discussion on the quantification of health commodities. The following topics were moderated by different groups of experts: 1. Country Experiences. Moderated by Wambui Waithaka, regional technical advisor with JSI and Gilbert Mateshi, program manager with Clinton Health Access Initiative. 2. Country Processes and Tools. Moderated by Irene Agyemang, team... Read more
Technical areas: M&E, technology
November-December 2016: Renne Van de Weerdt, senior technical advisor for Reproductive Health Commodities at UNFPA, Jennie Greaney, technical specialist in the Commodity Security Branch at UNFPA and Charles Otine, innovation specialist at UNFPA moderated a discussion on the use of drones, or the preferred term, unstaffed aerial vehicles (UAV), as a... Read more
Technical areas: policy, technology, transport
October-November 2016: A collection of global experts led the discussion on how to use data from monitoring and evaluation to guide supply chain strategies, policies, decisions and technical assistance. The following three topics were moderated by different groups of experts: 1. People and process solutions for improved data-driven decision making.... Read more
Technical areas: M&E
September 2016: Bar codes play a crucial role in the health supply chain, ensuring the right materials and products are available to the end user, while increasing accuracy and reducing processing and data collection time. The following topics were moderated by different groups of experts: Barcoding basics: Understanding what barcoding... Read more
Technical areas: human resources, M&E, technology
August 2016: IAPHL colleagues discussed the Ebola outbreak and how it affected their supply chains. Specifically, how was the Ebola outbreak different from other supply chain challenges such as HIV and AIDS? For chronic and comparatively unchanging diseases, logisticians can plan and develop a static supply chain, but acute outbreaks... Read more
Technical areas: emergency response
In May and June 2016, IAPHL held a discussion called “Shining the Spotlight on People.” Summary of Week 1 discussion The question for the first week was: What is really going on with human resources in my supply chain? Is it really just a lack of capacity? Or is it... Read more
Technical areas: human resources
Throughout the month of December 2015, the IAPHL community engaged in a discussion called “Supply Chains and GIS: How Geography Can Strengthen the Analysis of Supply Chains.” In this conversation IAPHL members looked at how the mapping of geographic and development data can be linked with logistics data to improve... Read more
Technical areas: M&E, technology, transport
In November 2014, IAPHL members discussed the logistics of maintaining laboratory equipment. This discussion served as a follow up to the earlier discussion on the maintenance of supply chain assets led by Clinton de Souza. In this discussion members looked specifically at the special needs and challenges of maintaining lab equipment to minimize... Read more
Technical areas: laboratory, policy
October 2014, Throughout the month of October, the IAPHL community engaged in a moderated discussion entitled “Improving Immunization Supply Chains.” The moderator was Daniel Thornton, director of strategic initiatives at GAVI. He discussed the new global immunization supply chain strategy that GAVI has developed in conjunction with WHO, UNICEF, and the... Read more
Technical areas: immunization