Revolving Fund Pharmacy
"One of the most pressing challenges in global health is providing affordable access to essential medicines. A straightforward infection is easily curable with a simple antibiotic, but supply chain problems often cause government health facilities to stock out of key drugs. Patients are left facing either unaffordable commercial drug prices or no medicine at all. For patients in rural areas where it costs a lot of time and money to see a nurse or doctor, the knowledge that medicines may not be available often leads to reluctance to seek out health services in the first place.
Our team will partner with the Kenyan government and local communities to establish Revolving Fund Pharmacies (RFP) across western Kenya to ensure affordable access to essential medicines to treat bacterial, parasitic, and fungal infections, as well as chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma. Small co-pays will be used to cover operational costs and drug re-stocking. We have launched pilot RFPs at three locations, which have confirmed high patient demand for RFP drugs, often due to stock-outs at standard government facilities. Further, financial results show that the RFP model, once established, can be sustained.
Our plan is to refine the model to prove operational sustainability, and then to scale across rural communities in western Kenya. We believe that this approach can serve as a template for other global health endeavors to replicate in resource-constrained settings.
Our team represents a strong mix of private sector, research, medical, pharmacy, and health implementation experience. Furthermore, our lead implementers are Kenyan pharmacists who are best positioned to scale this idea in the local context.
Yi-An Huang (Team Leader): Yi-An is currently a first-year student at Harvard Business School and worked on the strategy and implementation of the RFP pilot prior to business school while he was living in western Kenya. His prior experience was in global health strategy and evaluation with FSG, and private sector consulting with L.E.K. Consulting in Boston.
Kristin Huang (Team Member): Kristin will soon begin an internal medicine/primary care residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital after graduating from Harvard Medical School in May 2012. She has conducted health services research on pediatric antiretroviral adherence, computerized clinical reminder systems, and pain assessment in western Kenya, as well as infection control and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment capacity at hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Imran Manji (Lead Implementer): Imran is a Clinical Pharmacist at the United State Agency for International Development-Academic Model Providing Access To Healthcare (USAID-AMPATH) and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Purdue University College of Pharmacy. He is based at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya and oversees the pharmacy activities of AMPATH's Primary Health Care and Chronic Disease Management Program. He is a graduate of the University of Nairobi.
Eunice Kosgei (Implementer): Eunice is a pharmaceutical technologist at the United State Agency for International Development-Academic Model Providing Access To Healthcare (USAID-AMPATH). She supervises the RFP Pilot, which includes training staff, implementing operational improvements, and reporting on results. She is a graduate of Kenya Medical Training College.
Sonak Pastakia (Senior Advisor): Sonak serves as Assistant Professor for the College of Pharmacy at Purdue University as well as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and Visiting Lecturer at Moi University School of Medicine. He is on the leadership team responsible for expanding access to chronic disease management and pharmacy services across western Kenya. Sonak holds a PharmD from Temple University and a Masters in Public Health from Harvard."
