Last Mile Health

Despite decades of medical and technological progress, half of the world’s 7.3 billion people—including one billion people living in remote communities—lives without access to essential health services. Compounding this crisis is a massive shortage of health workers, which is forecast to grow to a gap of 18 million by 2030. If these gaps are not addressed, more than 8.9 million people could continue to die each year from diseases that can be prevented or treated.

Last Mile Health saves lives in the world’s most remote communities by partnering with governments to design, strengthen, scale, and advocate for high-quality community health systems that empower teams of community and frontline health workers to deliver essential primary care services–including prenatal services, vaccinations, care for non-communicable diseases, and HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria treatment– to their communities.

As of May 2019, the Government of Liberia and its partners had hired, trained, and equipped more than 3,300 community and frontline health workers across 14 of 15 total counties. They have carried out more than 1.6 million home visits; treated and/or screened 630,000 childhood cases of pneumonia, malaria, diarrhea, or malnutrition; supported 160,000 pregnancy visits; and identified approximately 3,900 potential epidemic events in their Communities. Over more than a decade of partnership with Liberia’s Ministry of Health, we have seen the transformative impact that occurs when governments are supported to design, scale, strengthen, and sustain high-quality community health systems that empower teams of community and frontline health workers to deliver essential primary care services to their communities.