Improving Healthcare Around the World: Yale Launches Global Health Leadership Institute

New Haven, Conn. — In an effort to accelerate improvements in the effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare in developing nations around the world, Yale University has launched the Global Health Leadership Institute (GHLI). The mission of the GHLI is to strengthen the capacity of countries and communities to ensure health equity and quality of care for all.

The GHLI was established as a collaborative effort between Yale’s School of Public Health and The MacMillan Center. It will collaborate with other faculty and staff from across Yale interested in global health.

“Sharing Yale’s broad expertise with government health care leaders and academic colleagues in the developing world can have a significant impact on their efforts to improve care,” said President Richard C. Levin. “Combined with the education at Yale of students seeking to be the next global health leaders, this initiative will add to the University’s international influence on major health challenges.”

GHLI will work with health leaders to improve the performance of national health systems through leadership development, management- and quality-improvement training, and research. For example, GHLI will work with ministries of health and other key stakeholders to strengthen hospital management and quality of care with the aim of improving health outcomes such as maternal mortality. In addition, GHLI will work with in-country universities to tailor professional development programs for their nation’s health managers and clinicians.

GHLI was created by Elizabeth Bradley, Ph.D., professor and director of Global Health Initiatives at the Yale School of Public Health. “A key factor in our success over the next few years in global health will be supporting countries’ efforts to improve their health systems,” said Bradley. “The GHLI was launched to support countries in meeting this challenge through leadership development, training and research.”

In addition, GHLI will seek to develop the next generation of global health leaders through an innovative new course that will apply strategic problem solving to challenges in global health. Inspired by the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale, the class will integrate academic and practitioner perspectives and include internships in the global health field.

The GHLI will hold its first annual conference, “Strategic Problem Solving in Global Health” June 15-19, 2009, inviting representatives from six countries that have made exceptional improvements in health systems in recent years despite substantial resource obstacles: Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Mexico, Rwanda and Singapore. The conference will serve as a launching point for delegations to implement focused plans addressing health priorities in their countries.

Michael Skonieczny has been recruited by Yale to be the first executive director of the Global Health Leadership Institute. He comes to Yale from Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, where he served as director of Public Policy. While there he led the organization’s advocacy efforts focused on expanding U.S. financial support for the Global Fund. Prior to that, Skonieczny was a senior public policy officer for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and served as a legislative assistant to U.S. Representative Rosa L. DeLauro.