News and Events

June 11, 2009 - Washington, DC - QED has recently expanded its health portfolio, winning several projects improving health both domestically and internationally. New QED projects include:

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Population Affairs (OPA) has been funded to make people aware of the potential use of donated frozen embryos as an alternative for infertile couples seeking to build a family. An estimated 400,000 frozen embryos in the United States were created during in-vitro fertilization procedures. Couples may not use all of the embryos and may choose to release those remaining for donation and adoption. OPA has contracted QED and Brandeis University to study the spectrum of services necessary for a frozen embryo donation and adoption program. Through the Study of Frozen Embryo Donation and Adoption Services, QED will learn from the experiences of five OPA frozen embryo public awareness grantees, in-vitro fertilization clinics, potential frozen embryo donors and recipients and experts working in various specialties in this new field.  The QED-Brandeis team will develop a list of possible performance measures and a suggested performance monitoring plan for future programming.
• Under the Population Council’s Project SEARCH consortium, QED is providing technical expertise to the AFFORD Initiative, a program designed to increase the sustainable marketing of products and services for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, reproductive health and family planning, child health, and malaria as well as enhance the knowledge and correct use of these products and services. QED is conducting the mid-term evaluation of AFFORD activities during its three-year base period, examining the effectiveness of the marketing and awareness creation components and the extent to which project-promoted products and services are made available by local institutions in a sustainable manner.
• Also under Project SEARCH, QED is conducting the Hospice Africa Uganda (HAU) End-of-Project Evaluation.  The evaluation assesses the effectiveness of HAU’s palliative care program and identifies best practices and lessons learned during its implementation.  Specific objectives include reviewing international standards of and approaches to palliative care; examining how the HAU education program contributed to increasing availability of palliative care to persons living with HIV/AIDS and their families; assessing HAU’s approaches and strategies to ensure sustainability; and measuring the extent to which HAU has increased access to and utilization of quality palliative care services.
• For The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, QED is conducting the Private Sector Health Service Delivery Review: Lessons Learned from USAID. Among major donors, USAID has long been a leader in promoting the engagement of the private sector in health.  The review aims to identify private sector service delivery health interventions, tools, approaches models based on evidence gathered to date; and identify lessons learned and best practices for future programming in the private sector delivery of health services.
  

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