Center for Global Strategic Information and Public Health Practice

At the Center for Global Strategic Information and Public Health Practice, we believe that the road to achieving the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets—that by the year 2030 95% of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 95% of all people with diagnosed HIV will receive antiretroviral therapy, and 95% of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression—begins by translating the right knowledge into the right decisions. For more than 15 years, GSI has aimed to further data-driven science in countries where we work. Specifically, we help strengthen the capacity of stakeholders to collect, synthesize and use strategic information (SI) to inform, guide and monitor evidence-based responses to the HIV epidemic. By providing this support, we help countries control their HIV epidemics, with the objective of reaching the 95-95-95 targets by 2030.

Under the leadership of Professor George Rutherford, GSI faculty and staff work with PEPFAR, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and other key initiatives in more than 40 countries on five continents. Our largest presence is in East and Southern Africa, where we have developed long-term and robust partnerships with governments in several countries.

Core Competencies

Graphic showing Global Strategic Information's core competenciesOur breadth of experience primes us to partner with public health experts in host countries and foster capacity development through incrementally tailoring interventions, developing protocols, designing methods and tools for implementation, data analysis and dissemination of findings. While much of our work focuses on HIV, our core competencies can incorporate other disease areas and public health programs.p>

Epidemiologic Surveillance

GSI builds the capacities of public health leaders to design, implement, and evaluate innovative and epidemiologically rigorous surveillance methodologies to measure disease burden, identify populations in need, understand barriers to care and treatment, and to assess population-level program impact. By conducting household-level surveys, population size estimation, and probability-based epidemiological studies among key and priority populations and enhancing case reporting systems, we support data collection, analysis and use for public health decision-making.

Health Informatics and Technology

The Health Informatics Hub at GSI provides technical, programmatic, and managerial expertise to design, develop, implement, and utilize health information systems at national and sub-national levels. Through the Hub, GSI brings together professionals with expertise in software development; database management; popular open source health information systems such as DHIS2, OpenMRS and ODK; data analysis, visualization, reporting and business intelligence systems; app development for Android and iOS; dashboard development; and GIS mapping.

Research and Evaluation

GSI assists in assessing evidence, guidelines and recommendations, as well as in developing, evaluating and bringing to scale high-impact and low-cost public health interventions. GSI conducts research to determine the strength of evidence and identify research gaps to inform international research agendas and guideline development. We pioneered an analytical approach known as “triangulation,” which integrates multiple data sources for guiding programmatic decision-making to address public health problems. We developed a resource guide and have conducted Triangulation workshops with host country institutions including Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Ukraine. GSI bridges the gaps among evidence, policy and implementation and stimulates practical international and local action to solve critical health challenges.

Training and Education

GSI prepares the next generation of global health leaders through practical and cost-effective education and training activities. GSI offers state-of-the-art public health training courses and programs, ranging from epidemiological methods to specialized clinical care trainings. The International Traineeships in AIDS Prevention Studies (ITAPS) program offers blended-learning opportunities in scientific writing and mentoring. GSI assists host-country academic institutions to create new and/or strengthen their existing postgraduate degree programs in epidemiology and biostatistics, M&E and other areas of applied public health research and management.

Tracking the 95/95/95 Cascade

GSI supports countries to meet the UNAIDS 95-95-95 goals by 2030. By improving data quality, analysis, and use, GSI helps countries identify geographies and populations with unmet needs and maps them to services and resources.

Strategically using HIV cascade data to improve services across the continuum of HIV care
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Program Monitoring and Quality Improvement

GSI supports countries to strengthen their monitoring systems to improve data quality. Our monitoring and quality improvement activities focus on understanding the types of data collected in local, regional, and country-level systems, and how data can be used to improve patient outcomes through targeted quality improvement activities. GSI incorporates novel methodologies, analytics, strategic planning and guidance, and toolkits to support programmatic areas such as prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), maternal and child health (MCH), and cohort analysis.

Additional Programs

  • California Department of Public Health Programs: TB, STD, Lead Poisoning, Immunizations Linkages
  • HEALTHQUAL 
    HEALTHQUAL designs and implements large-scale improvement activities, such as improvement collaboratives, and facilitates the establishment of sustainable and institutionalized health facility-level and national quality management (QM) programs.
  • Faculty Research
  • Cochrane Collaboration's Review Group on HIV/AIDS
    GSI serves as the editorial base and is internationally recognized as a world leader in the rigorous, evidence-based synthesis of HIV intervention research. This work has informed the development of guidelines and policy statements for many key agencies. 

Where We Work

Our Partners

Funders

Governments and Agencies

International Agencies

Organizations

Universities

Our Organization

Our People

Leadership

Core Competency Leads

Epidemiologic Surveillance

Research and Evaluation

Training and Education, ITAPS

  • Krysia Lindan, PhD
  • Debbie Bain Brickley

Health Informatics and Technology

Program Monitoring and Quality Improvement

  • Bruce Agins, PhD
  • Nathan Smith

Faculty and Staff

Overseas Staff

Jamaica

Kenya

Namibia

  • Fekir Negussie, MPH

Tanzania

Uganda