“I love interacting with and listening to patients. Seeing our patients, especially the elderly and children, improve the quality of their lives gives me satisfaction. Nothing is better than seeing a patient smile after many years of critical sicknesses and hopelessness.”
Gedeon Ngoga, NCD Associate Director and nurse, PIH Rwanda
www.pih.org, May 2014
NCD Synergies, Partners In Health, and our collaborators believe in patient-driven care. The people living with noncommunicable diseases and injuries in settings of extreme poverty always remain at the center of what we do.
Rebecca E. Rollins / Partners In Health
Nineteen-year-old Alphonsina Akinana speaks in a whisper because she cannot catch her breath. Doctors at Rwinkwavu Hospital in Rwanda believe her heart is pumping blood that contains very little oxygen, due to a congenital illness that is commonly corrected in infancy in the United States.
Our approach is grounded in a philosophy that all people — especially the poorest of the poor — deserve care and treatment for any condition, including chronic illnesses like cancer and heart disease.
In addition to capacity building at the health systems level, countries must look at effective solutions to providing patient support in NCDs, especially in the poorest communities. At a clinical level, providing follow up care services is critical. Patient advocacy initiatives and expanding community education efforts around prevention and treatment for NCDs and injuries are also an important cornerstone of patient-driven care.
Learn more about successful efforts supporting patients living with NCDs and injuries in poor and remote regions.
To hear directly from our patients and others living with NCDs and injuries in settings of extreme poverty, check out recent Voices of NCDI Poverty narratives.