Examining community health workers' value in saving lives, improving health

Mar 1 2013

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog features "a Q&A between Julia Bluestone of Jhpiego and the Frontline Health Workers Coalition and Dr. Henry Perry of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on a recently released report examining community health workers' effectiveness in saving lives and improving health." The report, coauthored by Perry and Rose Zulliger of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and commissioned by the MDG Health Alliance, concludes that "[u]tilizing community health workers (CHW) to deliver health services to women and families can significantly improve the health of children and potentially save 3.6 million children's lives each year," the blog states. Bluestone interviews "Perry on the key takeaways from this report and the potential impact of CHWs on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)," the blog notes (2/26).