12 July 2022 I Geneva, Switzerland -- The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the Stop TB Partnership are pleased to announce a new project that will further expand decentralized (closer to where tuberculosis (TB) affected people are), integrated (for TB and across diseases), and people-centered (make it as convenient and easy as possible) care. It will focus on accelerating the sustainable roll-out of new product innovations, including digital health technologies, that will move relevant services from hospitals to people’s neighborhoods and homes.
As part of KOICA’s mission to leave no one behind and our commitment to ensure health rights for all, we are proud to be, for the first time, jointly working with the Stop TB Partnership, alongside country end-users, stakeholders, and partners, to reduce the TB burden, and make routine services more accessible now and adaptable for future pandemics. We believe the Re-imagining TB Care initiative captures how the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way TB-affected people, including care providers, can and will interact with their health and healthcare needs.
--Sungsoo OH, Acting Executive Director of KOICA
The project will initially be implemented in Uganda and Viet Nam. From inception, it will be driven and decided by a collective and diverse group of TB survivors, TB-affected people, care providers, Ministry of Health and National TB Programme representatives, local implementers, civil society, and communities, and consist of three main objectives. First, they will leverage a Human-Centered Design approach and process to identify which relevant services should move from hospitals to people’s neighborhoods and homes and select product innovations that would facilitate this shift. Second, the group will implement the rapid introduction, adoption, and scale-up of these solutions. Third, they will ensure these product innovations are automatically connected to a country’s information management/case-based surveillance system.
KOICA’s leadership and contribution are a testament to how TB is a pathfinder for both communicable and non-communicable diseases and an essential driver of pandemic preparedness and response. This project is unique on multiple dimensions, but the most important one is that it starts from a blank canvas, and the opportunities are truly based on the experiences, hopes and dreams, and needs and wants of TB survivors, TB-affected people, and care providers.
--Lucica DITIU, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership
I am very pleased to hear about KOICA’s and the Stop TB Partnership’s commitment and support for the TB-affected people. I was diagnosed with pulmonary TB in December 2021, and my health and finances deteriorated during the six months I was on treatment. I really hope this project can help TB-affected people by giving them more care and service choices that consider their emotional, financial, and health needs.
--TT TAM, TB survivor, Viet Nam
To learn more about KOICA’s Global Disease Eradication Fund, please click here.
To learn more about the Stop TB Partnership's Re-imagining TB Care initiative, please click here.
