The most effective way to reach patients around the world is through our partners working directly with the people we aim to serve.
The Ariadne Labs Primary Health Care Program is creating tools and protocols that support health care facilities in providing population health services that emphasize health promotion, prevention, early diagnosis, and comprehensive, and continuous care. We accomplish this goal through scientific principles, human-centered design approaches, clinical transformation protocols and coaching, and policy development and implementation.
PROJECTS
Improving Care for Hypertension
BP Sawa (2024)
A hypertension pilot program in Nairobi, Kenya— was rolled out by Penda Health in partnership with Ariadne’s Primary Health Care Program, supported by Endless Network. BP Sawa is an innovative clinical delivery pathway for the treatment and management of patients with hypertension. The intervention was designed through an intensive patient journey mapping and co-design process which brought together key clinic staff, leadership, researchers, and implementation and design specialists. BP Sawa aims to demonstrate the power of shifting to a proactive, PHC-centered health delivery model in the pursuit of more person-centered, high-quality care.
The Ariadne Labs | Penda Health partnership designed and piloted BP Sawa, a chronic care management program for Penda patients with hypertension with the goal to develop and implement a hypertension clinical pathway for clinicians and patients to improve hypertension outcomes.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT AREAS
Generating Insight and Guidance to Advance People-centered Integrated Primary Health Care
In 2024, the PHC Program researched countries and health systems that have made significant, replicable progress in advancing person-centered, integrated primary health care. This research will be published as a series of case studies in a forthcoming book as part of the World Scientific Publishers series in Global Health Economics and Public Policy.
The work aims to emphasize the importance of patient-centered and integrated care (and systems), while highlighting that PHC is a key driver of high-performing health systems. It plays an important role in providing population-based public health services in addition to essential preventive and curative health care services. PHC also plays a crucial role in coordinating care to ensure patients receive appropriate comprehensive health care services across all levels of providers and types of care.
Building Empanelment (Patient Rostering) Implementation Tools
As part of the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative, Ariadne Labs developed an Empanelment Implementation Guide to equip policy makers and practitioners with detailed guidance and resources to empanel their population. The PHC team completed a scoping review of previously published work on empanelment, interviewed experts in the field to understand existing guidance, developed user profiles, and ideated around what health system planners would need to successfully empanel their populations. The tool provides evidence-backed action steps for empanelment and instruction for how to leverage population health management.
Studying the Relationship between Primary Health Care Systems and Mortality
Over the last several decades, Costa Rica has achieved significant successes in primary health care with a model that ensures all people have access to high-quality, comprehensive, and affordable care. Since 2015, Ariadne Labs Primary Health Care team has cultivated a partnership with the Costa Rican government health system to better understand the country’s journey to achieving their universal primary health care model.
In January 2024, the PHC team published data in partnership with our Costa Rican colleagues which demonstrated a 13% reduction in age-adjusted mortality rate for those assigned to a “health area” or primary care facility in Costa Rica. This paper is foundational in making the case for country investments in their primary care systems and the life-saving impacts a robust primary care system can have on mortality. We are launching similar studies in other countries to better document and understand how investments in PHC drive better health outcomes.
Defining the Core Tenants and Functions of PHC
In 2014, Ariadne Labs was tasked with analyzing high-performing primary health care systems around the world to develop recommendations for strengthening primary health care delivery in China. The results were distilled into the Eight Tenets of Primary Health Care Improvement, which have been used to inform widespread health care reform in provinces across China.
The ‘5S-5M-5C’ schematic describes essential service delivery mechanisms for transforming key inputs into functional and equitable PC systems. Recognizing the importance of these often-undervalued mechanisms and better understanding how to measure and improve them, will be critical for making progress towards the goal of quality UHC for all. This schematic has important implications for global research and policy agendas in the pursuit of UHC and emphasizes the need for better measurement and stronger data systems to translate measurement into improvement and scale these improvements in primary care service delivery.