诺华制药前CEO:如何为缺医少药的地区带去医疗服务？

一年多以前，我们在罗马举办的“财富-时代全球论坛”上第一次见面。在那次论坛上，我们与其他全球商业和NGO组织的领袖，向教皇方济各承诺，在未来几年，我们将致力于实现为全球最不发达国家的1亿名儿童提供现代化医疗这一宏伟目标。

一个残酷的现实是，今天全世界有超过37亿人缺少基本医疗服务，至少占全球一半人口，而部分原因是人们居住在远离卫生诊所和医院的偏远落后地区。这种差异的后果令人震惊：预计到2030年将有约360万5岁以下的儿童夭折，而他们死亡的原因大部分是可以避免的。

但在这些地区提供医疗服务面临着许多挑战。有些地区缺少公路、电信、电力或其他基本的基础设施，更不必说对卫生工作者的投入。

这让我们无法接受。在工作过程中，我们亲眼见证了这些统计数据在现实生活中带来的痛苦，病人们饱受病痛折磨，让我们为之动容，而那些疾病其实并不难治疗或预防。这让我们想到了一位来自赞比亚的女孩，她患有风湿性心脏病，并伴有未经医治的链球菌性咽炎并发症。令人伤心的是，我们努力想要帮助她，但她最终还是因心脏病去世。不幸的是，贫穷和缺乏医疗这一对致命组合，在全世界许多地区非常普遍。

要想解决这个不可思议的挑战，培训更多社区卫生工作者（CHW）是关键。事实证明，社区卫生工作者项目不仅能拯救生命，还能创造就业，甚至可以防止再次爆发流行病。社区卫生工作者不能取代护士和医生； 但他们将把医疗系统的覆盖范围扩大到最偏远的社区。然而，卫生工作者的培训模式已经过时。在许多偏远落后的地区，一些受训者要乘坐独木舟或者步行几个小时却参加培训，而授课的形式还是活动挂图和马克笔。这种培训模式的速度和规模，均无法满足全世界对医疗保健的巨大需求。

现在我们有机会改变社区卫生工作者的培养模式。利用先进技术，我们可以掀起一场针对社区卫生工作者的数字教育革命，确保即便最偏远的角落也能享受到医疗服务。

因此，最后一程医疗（Last Mile Health）将利用诺华制药（Novartis）资助的100万美元，扩大其社区卫生学院（Community Health Academy）。该学院是全球第一个专为社区卫生工作者和领导者量身打造的数字继续教育平台。该平台将提供各种全球数字在线学习资源，包括为社区卫生工作者开发的手机应用，以及为领导者提供的一套现场管理课程。

纵观人类历史，人人都会得病，但并非每个人都能享受到医疗服务。现在，我们有机会提高全世界每一个社区的健康水平，使即使最偏远的地区也能够享受到医疗服务。让我们行动起来吧！（财富中文网）

江慕忠为诺华制药前任CEO。拉杰·潘贾比为最后一程医疗的联合创始人兼CEO。

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

A little over a year ago, the two of us met for the first time at the Fortune + TIME Global Forum in Rome. It was there that we, along with other leaders of global businesses and NGOs, committed to Pope Francis that we would contribute toward the ambitious goal of providing modern health care over the next several years to 100 million children in the world’s least developed countries.

The harsh reality is that today more than 3.7 billion people—at least half of the world’s population—lack access to essential health services, in part because they live in rural areas out of reach of health clinics and hospitals. The consequences of this disparity are staggering: An estimated 3.6 million children under the age of five are expected to die in 2030 from causes that can largely be prevented.

Yet providing access to health care in these locations is challenging. These are areas that are often without adequate roads, telecommunications, electricity, or other basic infrastructure, not to mention adequate investment in health workers.

We find this to be unacceptable. Through our work, we have each seen the devastating reality of these statistics in real life, and have each been touched by patients who are struggling with diseases that are easily treatable or preventable. It makes us think of the young girl from Zambia with rheumatic heart disease, a complication of untreated streptococcal sore throat, who sadly died from this illness despite efforts to help her. Unfortunately, poverty and a lack of health care make for a deadly combination that is all too common in far too many places around the world.

Training more community health workers (CHW) is a key piece of solving this incredible challenge. CHW programs are proven to save lives, create jobs, and even protect against the next epidemic. CHWs don’t replace nurses and doctors; rather they extend the reach of the health system to the most remote communities. However, the model for training health workers is antiquated. In many rural and remote regions of the world, some trainees travel for hours by canoe or foot to training sessions, where they are taught with flip charts and markers. This model simply can’t train health workers quickly enough or at the scale required to meet the immense need for health care access around the world.

We now have the opportunity to change the old model of education for CHWs. Leveraging advances in technology, we can start a digital education revolution for CHWs and ensure even the most remote corners of the world have access to health care.

That is why, with $1 million in support from Novartis, Last Mile Health is expanding its Community Health Academy. The academy is the world’s first digital continuing education platform tailored for community health workers and leaders globally. It will offer a blend of global digital online learning resources, including mobile apps for CHWs and a suite of in-person management courses for leaders.

For all of human history, illness has been universal but access to health care has not. We have a chance to strengthen the health of communities in every part of the world—even the most remote. Let’s get started.

Joe Jimenez is the former CEO of Novartis. Raj Panjabi is the co-founder and CEO of Last Mile Health.