Who We Are
Background
Primary healthcare centers are essential in providing basic health services, and their crucial role has been formalized in the Declaration of Alma-Ata in 1978. Almost 40 years after that declaration was signed by nearly all countries, half of the world’s population still does not have access to primary healthcare services (WHO 2017). In 2015, all countries signed the Sustainable Development Goals, which include universal healthcare coverage as a target.
However, in many developing countries, governments lack the political will or the resources to achieve this goal. Even where primary healthcare centers cover a large proportion of the population, focus is placed on maternal and child health and facilities are often ill-equipped to manage the now more common chronic non-communicable diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension.
Therefore, as part of the Lown Scholars Program of the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, we have developed detailed business plans to establish primary healthcare centers as a social business. The long-term goal of the project is to set up a global network of Lown Community Health Centers (LCHCs) in underserved areas. The LCHCs will serve as engines of social justice by providing affordable high-quality primary healthcare services and preventing catastrophic healthcare expenditures that drive more than 100 million people to poverty each year. The centers are named after our benefactor and mentor, the renowned physician, activist, and Nobel Laureate Dr Bernard Lown.
About Us
We have put together a team of public health professionals across four countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria-Cross River, Koge, Osun, and Oyo) and two countries in south Asia (Pakistan and India) and have developed business plans with input from experts in community medicine, global health, epidemiology, pharmacology, information technology, and business administration.
Country Directors
Garima Kapila
India
Garima Gupta Kapila is the Founder of the Swasth Yog Institute in Mumbai, an initiative of the Swasth Foundation. Their mission is to create a health ecosystem which enables a state of internal harmony, thus, enabling a state of physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being. The Institute is creating a new cadre of wellbeing professionals and demonstrating models for integrated care delivery. An engineer by education, Ms. Gupta Kapila is certified in various areas of yoga therapy, nutrition, and life coaching, and is currently pursuing an MS in Yoga and studying Integral Somatic Psychology.
Sundeep Kapila
India
Sundeep Kapila is co-founder and CEO of Swasth Foundation. Sundeep has worked as a Management Consultant with McKinsey & Company for seven years, where he specialized in the healthcare and development sectors. In 2008, he left McKinsey to set up Swasth with the mission of building a sustainable and accountable health eco-system for the low income people in India. Sundeep graduated with a B.Tech in computer science from IIT Bombay in 2001. Since then, he has undergone different programs to gain the domain knowledge required to build a a health eco-system. He has completed a diploma of associateship in insurance, undergone two years of law studies, received an M.D. in alternative medicine, completed a yoga instructor certificate and is a certified professional coach by the International Coaching Federation.
Shukri Mohamed
Kenya
Dr. Mohamed is a public health specialist based at the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi with eight years’ experience in research, project planning, and management and four years’ experience in clinical pharmacy practice. She has worked in projects involving primary health care centers. She also has strong skills in project management, project implementation, data quality assurance, data analysis and scientific writing.
Soter Ameh
Nigeria
Dr. Ameh is a field epidemiologist, community physician, and public health specialist. He is an Associate Professor in and the immediate past Head of the Department of Community Medicine at University of Calabar. He has conducted research in Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa to better understand and improve primary health care delivery. His research findings have been presented at international conferences and published in peered-reviewed journals.
Oladimeji Bolarinwa
Nigeria
Dr. Bolarinwa is a community health specialist and a lecturer with a PhD in Health Service Management. In the last 10 years, he has worked and supervised primary healthcare centers in Ilorin, Nigeria under collaborative arrangement with the university teaching hospital. He has also served as coordinator and field manager in operational research within Kwara Community Health Insurance Scheme (KCHIS) mostly among the primary healthcare providers.
Caleb Ochimana
Nigeria
Dr. Ochimana is a board-certified pharmacist and a public health specialist with 10 years’ experience in healthcare industry. He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy, MBA, and MPH in Health Management from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He founded Ochimana Caleb Foundation and Ochimana Healthcare, which focuses on providing primary healthcare services to people living in urban slums and rural communities in Nigeria. He has provided free medical screening and drug administration to over 5,000 people in Nigeria and has conducted several community outreaches creating awareness on cardiovascular health and malaria prevention.
Abayomi Oluwasanu
Nigeria
Dr. Oluwasanu is a primary care physician with 18 years’ experience in general medical practice and community health. He holds an MPH in community health from the University of Ibadan. He is serving as a Senior Medical Officer at the University of Ibadan Health Services, an accredited health facility which provides comprehensive primary health care for university staff, their dependents and other enrollees. He is also the coordinator of the Workplace Wellness Programme of the University of Ibadan.
Mohsin Ali Mustafa
Pakistan
Dr. Mohsin Ali Mustafa is co-founder of Clinic5. He graduated from the Aga Khan University and chose to pursue public health for the scale of impact that this field offers. In the past, he managed strategy for health ventures at the Aman Foundation. This position allowed him to engage at several levels of healthcare delivery within Pakistan, and during this time he developed a particular interest in sustainable, market-based health solutions. He is a 2015 Asia 21 Young Leader at the Asia Society and a regional fellow at the Acumen fellowship for social entrepreneurs.
Alfa Muhihi
Tanzania
Dr. Muhihi earned his MD from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania in 2008 and pursued public health training at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2011. He has experience in project planning and management as well as working with the health systems in both rural and urban settings of Tanzania for eight years. His focus is on improving lives through access to high-quality, affordable primary health care and through implementation of culturally acceptable community-based primary prevention interventions.
Samson Okello
Uganda
Dr. Okello is an internist and epidemiologist with 7 years’ experience in medical education and research. He is the founder of Bugoye Hypertension Improvement Project which focuses on providing primary healthcare services to people with hypertension in the foothills of mount Rwenzori. He has provided free medical screening and antihypertensive medications to over 5,000 people in the communities of Soroti, Bugoye, and Mbarara over the past five years and has conducted several community outreaches screening and creating awareness of cardiovascular health.
Other Board Members
Goodarz Danaei
Bernard Lown Associate Professor of Cardiovascular Health, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; Faculty Director, Bernard Lown Scholars in Cardiovascular Health Program at Harvard Chan School
Melanie Lown
Director, Corporate Communications, AllWays Health Partners, Partners HealthCare
Rich Joseph
Medical Director, Brigham & Women’s Hospital Center for Community Wellness; Founder, VIM Medicine and Co-Founder, Vital CxNs
Richard Siegrist
Director of DrPH Program, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; CEO and chief innovation officer of Press Ganey Associates; founder, president and chief executive officer of PatientFlow Technology