The Academy’s global health programs support capacity building and improved engagement of child health providers as well as offer clinical skills development. Implementation programs are primarily grant-funded.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
What is GHEARD?
GHEARD is Global Health Education for Equity, Anti-Racism and Decolonization. It is a modular curriculum for global health trainees and providers that is being published by the American Academy of Pediatrics with collaboration from the Association of Pediatric Program Directors and the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. It was created by a diverse, large author group with representatives across the education spectrum and around the world.
This curriculum is available via the AAP Learning Management System and it can be viewed by clicking here.
GHEARD seeks to prompt critical reflection and analysis and create important (and sometimes uncomfortable) conversations across global health training spaces around inequity, racism, systems of oppression and structural violence, and the legacies of colonialism and neo-colonialism on the field by highlighting unHEARD and under-represented voices and perspectives in global health. The hope is that by informing and empowering global health trainees and providers about the complex history of the field, ongoing global health inequities, and critical consciousness of one’s own power and positionality, that they will be empowered to join together to work toward a more equitable, decolonized field of global health. The ultimate goal is to center the voices of our expert colleagues in resource-constrained communities and to empower global health trainees and providers from resource-wealthy settings to work alongside their expert partners to reimagine and work toward a world where all children and their families have access to the health care and basic services they need to thrive.
To learn more about GHEARD, click here.
Implementation
Early Childhood Development
The first three years of life provide a critical window in brain development and present an opportunity to invest in early interventions to improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children. Globally, nearly 250 million children under 5 are at risk of missing critical developmental milestones. For a child to both survive and thrive, they need enabling environments which promote good health, adequate nutrition, responsive caregiving, security and safety and opportunities for early learning. Loss in development potential translates to loss in societal economic gains, perpetuating the cycle of poverty. Building on its evidence-based and trusted domestic ECD programs, the AAP works with national pediatric societies to build their capacity to advocate to national governments for improved ECD policies and services and to support providers and caregivers in promoting nurturing care.
Current Programs
Strengthening Pediatricians’ Capacity for Promoting ECD & Nurturing Care – In partnership with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Kenya Paediatric Association, East Central and Southern Africa College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Paediatric Association of Tanzania, and the Associação Moçambicana de Pediatras (Mozambique), the AAP seeks to leverage the clinical expertise, patient experience and expansive networks of pediatricians to promote regional progress and to ensure that national and sub-national health care systems are responsive and inclusive of ECD and nurturing care.
Introducing Developmental Surveillance Practices in Abu Dhabi
The Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority (ECA) is a government entity charged with supporting integration of holistic early childhood development through a multi-sector approach, including supporting the training of healthcare providers in key clinical skills. To support this goal, the ECA has contracted the AAP to provide technical education and training to practicing pediatricians and family physicians in partnership with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Health (DOH) and National Academy for Childhood Development. The AAP has developed a program that lays the groundwork for systematic developmental surveillance and screening for children receiving care in Abu Dhabi.
The program includes a two-part course and direct follow-up technical consultations with AAP experts. The course is divided into two modules: a self-learning online module and a virtual live module. In the self-learning module, participants learn the basics of developmental surveillance and screening through didactic lectures. This is followed by the virtual live module, where participants engage with faculty and colleagues through case studies and break-out groups to enhance depth of learning. Following completion of the course series, clinicians receive a job aid to support inclusion of developmental surveillance in clinic visits with children.
This program was piloted in Fall of 2022. 96% of the 75 participating learners reported being highly satisfied with the overall training and 98% expressed their intention to implement their learnings in practice. 182 additional learners completed the course in December of 2023.
Immunization Access
Vaccines are one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions in history, preventing 2 to 3 million deaths each year. The world has experienced a 99% reduction of polio cases since 1988 and the preventable disease remains endemic in only two countries as of October 2023 . Despite our progress, globally an estimated 18 million infants do not have access to life-saving vaccines. In recent years, misinformation has led to a dramatic rise in vaccine hesitancy across the globe. In 2019, the World Health Organization named vaccine hesitancy a top 10 threat to public health. The AAP works closely with national pediatric societies, WHO, UNICEF and other key immunization stakeholders to improve immunization systems and service delivery. Read more about our approach and impact here.
Current Programs
Supporting Pediatric Vaccinators to Address Vaccine Hesitancy - With funding from MSD, AAP has developed a training course to support the implementation of the presumptive approach and motivational interviewing during immunization visits. Together with partners in the Japan and the Philippines we are piloting and evaluating the impact of these approaches with families.
The American Academy of Pediatrics "Improving Conversations with Vaccine-Hesitant Families" curriculum: an explanation – Watch this overview to learn more about our innovative simulation curriculum and how it is building the confidence of global pediatric healthcare providers and improving communication with vaccine-hesitant families.
Celebrating the Role of Pediatric Societies in the Big Catch-Up: World Immunization Week 2023 Special Virtual Event
Since 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and AAP have coordinated with national pediatric societies across the globe to support immunization services improvement and to highlight the critical role of pediatricians in supporting vaccinations. Across 11 countries, over 200 pediatricians have been trained as immunization advocates, who then reached more than 4,000 health workers across all cadres of the immunization system and over 3,000 community members, policy makers, and cultural leaders with stakeholder-specific immunization messages. Click here to hear directly from partners during a special virtual event that highlights the collaborative approach used to identify immunization system needs, shares specific intervention focus areas through case studies, and discusses the continued role of national pediatric societies to get global vaccinations back on track!
Integrated Child Health
Newborn, child and adolescent health services and the agencies that administer them are often fragmented. National governments must assess their health systems to ensure child health interventions are appropriately integrated and financed. An expansion and strengthening of a child’s continuum of care can prevent or reduce disease, improve nutritional status, advance the quality of care received, and create social and physical environments that promote safety and good health. This requires improved multi-sectoral coordination among government ministries, civil society, medical providers and community frontline workers.
Current Programs
Accessible Continuum of Care & Essential Services (ACCESS) – In partnership with USAID, Management Sciences for Health, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Nurse Midwives and others, the AAP works to improve the technical and clinical quality of community-based health centers and referral hospitals by conducting and supporting low-dose, high-frequency trainings and follow-up supervision to a cadre of child health providers in thirteen regions of the country.
Non-Communicable Diseases
Non-communicable diseases (NCDs)—including cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, diabetes and mental and neurological conditions—are the leading cause of death and disease worldwide, claiming 41 million lives every year. Two-thirds of premature deaths in adults are related to childhood conditions and behaviors associated with NCD risk factors common in young people. Additionally, NCDs disproportionately affect people in low- and middle-income countries where more than 77% of global NCD deaths occur. A life-course approach—encompassing pre-conception, childhood, adolescence and adulthood—is needed to prevent future NCDs and manage existing NCDs in children, adolescents and young adults.
In collaboration with diverse child health stakeholders, the AAP engages in and supports evidence-based, age-appropriate policies and interventions targeting the prevention, management and treatment of NCDs in young people through four main areas: advocacy, capacity development, youth engagement and knowledge to action.
Current Programs
Tobacco
- Strengthening Pediatricians’ Capacity for Tobacco Control – Through a collaborative agreement with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the AAP is engaging pediatric societies in priority countries to promote the prevention of tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke and implement evidence-based guidelines for treatment. Participating societies engage in regional collaborative group meetings and workshops, where they are mobilized to implement comprehensive tobacco control strategies and engage stakeholders to impact child and adolescent health in local, national, and regional settings.
Mental Health
- Adapting adolescent suicide prevention screening questionnaire in low resource settings – In partnership with the National Institutes of Mental Health, the Nepal Pediatric Society, and the Ethiopian Pediatric Society, the AAP conducted a research validation study on the Ask-Suicide Screening Questions (ASQ), a 4-item suicide risk screening instrument with excellent sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value. The study validated the ASQ in Amharic and Nepali, the official languages of Ethiopia and Nepal. The ASQ was found to be significant and equivalent to the use of the gold standard suicide assessment in these settings. This work was presented at the International Summitt on Suicide Research in 2023. Publication is underway.
- Small, community-based mental health grants – Through its Friends of Children fund, the AAP supported six organizations across the globe in implementing programs to promote adolescent mental health. Overall, the projects educated 6,121 adolescents across the globe.
Education & Training
Global Health Education Course
Helping Babies Survive
Globally each year, 2.5 million children die in their first month of life, with the vast majority of newborn deaths taking place in low- and middle-income countries. Tragically, approximately 75% of neonatal deaths occur during the first week of life, and about 1 million newborns die within the first 24 hours. Preterm birth, intrapartum-related complications (birth asphyxia or lack of breathing at birth) and infections are the three leading causes of newborn death worldwide. However, the knowledge and tools to drastically reduce neonatal mortality exist. Up to two-thirds of these deaths could be prevented through strengthening the quality of care as well as ensuring all babies have access to the essential services they need to survive and thrive.
Helping Babies Survive (HBS) is a suite of evidence-based, hands-on training programs developed by the AAP in collaboration with many global health partners to reduce neonatal mortality and morbidity in resource-limited environments. The HBS programs – Helping Babies Breathe (HBB), Essential Care for Every Baby (ECEB), and Essential Care for Small Babies (ECSB) – address the three most common causes of preventable neonatal deaths worldwide and ensure health care providers have the necessary skills and competencies to provide high quality care to newborns after birth.
The AAP works closely with professional societies, WHO, UNICEF, Laerdal Global Health, LDSC and other key newborn health stakeholders to implement sustainable HBS programs around the world, thereby building the capacity of health care workers to provide skilled, competent care on the day of birth. Since 2010, the HBS programs have been implemented in more than 80 countries and more than 500,000 health care providers have been trained.
To learn more, about the AAP’s current programs in HBS, please visit the Academy’s HBS website.
Neonatal Resuscitation Program
The Neonatal Resuscitation Program® (NRP®) course conveys an evidence-based approach to care of the newborn at birth and facilitates effective team-based care for healthcare professionals who care for newborns at the time of delivery. It is utilized in more than 136 countries and has been translated into 24 languages. An international version of the NRP® Provider Curriculum, with the Provider exam and eSim Cases, is available. A Spanish version includes the Spanish exam with English eSims.
To learn more, please visit the Academy’s NRP® website.