Talk:PATH (global health organization)

Offer to assist with article
Hi, I’m Einlowhood and I work for PATH. I’m stating this per the conflict of interest policy recommendation and in an effort to be transparent. We would like an independent editor to work on this article so it can be written from a neutral point of view and the following message can be removed from our article: “This article is written like an advertisement. Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view. For blatant advertising that would require a fundamental rewrite to become encyclopedic, use to mark for speedy deletion. (January 2009). I can provide information to an editor if that is helpful. Einlowhood (talk) 20:55, 18 May 2011 (UTC) Einlowhood
 * Hello Einlowhood. I have been editing Wikipedia for a few years and I am interested in editing articles about medical research organizations.  What kind of information do you have?  Can you please share?   Blue Rasberry    (talk)   22:06, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Advertising template removed
I just removed advert because the article does not seem like an advertisement to me. If anyone feels otherwise, please comment.  Blue Rasberry   (talk)   16:51, 12 September 2011 (UTC)

Suggested edits for this page
As I disclosed on my profile page, I work for PATH. I have made significant edits to this page that reflect a more recent history of PATH's work. I've included new references and a new structure to the article. I am relatively new to editing Wikiepdia and I want to respect Wikipedia's community guidelines. Einlowhood (talk) 22:06, 15 February 2013 (UTC)

New page
The Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (more commonly known as PATH) is an international, nonprofit global health organization based in Seattle, Washington (USA), with 1200+ employees in more than 30 offices around the world. Its president and CEO is Steve Davis.

PATH’s tagline is "A catalyst for global health."

History
Founded in 1977 with a focus on family planning, PATH soon broadened its purpose to work on a wide array of emerging and persistent global health issues in the areas of health technologies, maternal and child health, reproductive health, vaccines and immunization, and emerging and epidemic diseases such as HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis.

Since 2000, PATH has expanded from about 300 employees and an annual budget of $60 million to, in 2012, a payroll of 1,200 people working in 22 countries and a budget of $305 million.

PATH is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in global health today.

PATH’s headquarters are in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, close to several other global health organizations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

PATH’s work
PATH's vision is "a world where innovation ensures that health is within reach for everyone." Its mission is "to improve the health of people around the world by advancing technologies, strengthening systems, and encouraging healthy behaviors."

PATH is best known for developing and adapting technologies, such as improved vaccination devices and new tools to prevent cervical cancer, to address the health needs of developing countries. It targets health problems, evaluates possible solutions, and assesses if they would be useful in finding health solutions.

Steve Davis, PATH’s CEO, has described the organization’s role as a “bridge-builder and innovator on the global stage.”

Health technologies
PATH develops, adapts, and advances technologies focused on disease diagnostics, vaccine delivery, nutrition, reproductive health, water and sanitation, and other areas.

Vaccine delivery
One of PATH’s best-known technologies is the vaccine vial monitor, a small sticker that adheres to a vaccine vial and changes color as the vaccine is exposed to heat over time. The sticker helps health workers know when a vaccine is potent and when it must be thrown out. It promotes more reliable vaccinations as well as cost savings, because health workers no longer have to throw out vaccine just because they suspect it has gone bad. UNICEF requires these monitors on all vaccines it purchases.

Another vaccine technology developed by PATH is the Uniject device. The single-dose, autodisabling injection device consists of a needle attached to a small bubble of plastic that is prefilled with medication. The device is designed to prevent disease transmission and enable health workers with only a little training to administer vaccine and other drugs in remote villages.

Nutrition
PATH develops nutrition-focused innovations such as Ultra Rice, a manufactured, micronutrient-fortified "grain" that can be mixed with rice to fight malnutrition in countries where rice is a staple food. Made of rice flour, micronutrients, and nutrient-protecting ingredients, Ultra Rice can mimic the look and taste of local rice and deliver the specific micronutrients a population needs. Ultra Rice has been produced and tested in several countries, including Brazil, Burundi, and India, where it has been served in school-lunch programs. , PATH is working with partners in Cambodia to distribute Ultra Rice through food assistance programs and deepen the evidence base for rice fortification. In Brazil, PATH has partnered with a commercial rice producer to sell Ultra Rice on supermarket shelves and reach 10 million low-income consumers in three years.

Sexual and reproductive health
Several PATH technologies address sexual and reproductive health, including:
 * The careHPV test, developed in conjunction with QIAGEN as the first molecular diagnostic to screen for human papillomavirus (HPV)—the most common cause of cervical cancer—in clinics in low-resource settings. China’s State Food and Drug Administration approved the test for sale beginning in January 2013, followed by India and other emerging markets. The test is designed specifically for use in clinics that lack reliable clean water or electricity.
 * The SILCS diaphragm, a “one size fits most” contraceptive device. The device differs from traditional latex diaphragms in that it is made of silicone instead of latex, is designed to hold up to extreme temperatures and poor storage conditions common in developing countries, and will not require a doctor’s fitting.
 * The Woman’s Condom, a new female condom designed to be more acceptable to both partners than other female condoms, plus easier to use, more secure, less noisy, and more comfortable. PATH transferred production of the condom to Dahua Medical Apparatus Company in China in 2008. The condom has received regulatory approvals in China and the European Union and became commercially available in China in late 2011.

PATH employs a user-driven design process for its reproductive technologies to meet women’s specific needs.

Water and sanitation
PATH looks at ways to improve water quality in developing countries, including helping companies develop low-cost filters, gadgets, and other water-treatment products to stimulate a commercial market and keep prices low.

Vaccines and immunization
PATH is working with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to support the development of vaccines for diseases such as meningitis and pneumonia and to help countries introduce vaccines for childhood illnesses such as rotavirus and Japanese encephalitis.

Meningitis
PATH and the World Health Organization, through the Meningitis Vaccine Project, led the development of a vaccine called MenAfriVac to end meningitis A epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa, where 450 million people in 26 countries are at risk of the disease. The vaccine was developed by Serum Institute of India and introduced in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger in December 2010 to prevent the spread of a strain of meningitis found only in Africa. Within six months, the vaccine eliminated new cases of meningitis A in the areas where it was introduced. By the end of 2012, the vaccine had reached 100 million people in ten countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. The introduction of MenAfriVac marked the first time that a vaccine was developed for a disease only found in Africa.

Previously used meningitis vaccines had low efficacy and cost USD $80 per dose. The new vaccine has high efficacy against the type of meningitis that is most prevalent in Africa and costs less than $0.50 per dose. The entire vaccination research and development project cost less than US$100 million, about one-fifth the typical cost for developing a vaccine.

In 2012, MenAfriVac was also approved for storage without refrigeration for up to four days, enabling health workers to more easily reach patients in rural villages or in areas with no power.

Rotavirus
PATH supports the introduction of vaccines against rotavirus in developing countries to protect young children from severe diarrhea. In 2006, PATH helped Nicaragua become the first developing country to introduce rotavirus vaccines within months of their introduction. Former PATH researcher John Wecker noted that rotavirus infections dropped in areas that began to use the vaccine after the WHO recommended its international use in 2009.

PATH also conducts research to show the impact of rotavirus vaccines and help countries choose whether to adopt the vaccines into their immunization programs.

Japanese encephalitis
PATH is working with India and other countries in the region to introduce an affordable vaccine to protect against Japanese encephalitis—a disease the World Health Organization estimates claims 10,000 to 15,000 lives a year, mostly children, and causes permanent brain damage in many more. In 2006, PATH helped the government of India launch an immunization campaign to reach millions of children in high-risk areas with the vaccine. PATH has also supported successful immunization campaigns in Cambodia, North Korea, and other countries to reach more than 60 million children.

Epidemic diseases
Part of PATH’s work focuses on some of the most widespread and threatening global diseases: malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and influenza.

Malaria
The PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative supports several malaria vaccine candidates at various stages of development around the world, including the most advanced candidate, called RTS,S. Researchers are studying RTS,S, made by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, in phase 3 clinical trials among infants and young children in sub-Saharan Africa. Interim results of the study released in 2011 showed the vaccine provided about 50 percent protection against malaria for young children ages 5 to 17 months. Interim study results released in 2012 showed RTS,S reduced cases of malaria among infants by 33 percent.

Another PATH initiative to address malaria is the Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa (MACEPA), which focuses on controlling malaria through the use of insecticide-treated bednets, indoor spraying of insecticides, new diagnostic tools to find infection, and effective medicines for treatment. In Zambia, this work has helped decrease the rate of malaria among children younger than age 5 by 50 percent in two years.

In December 2012, PATH received an award from the US President’s Malaria Initiative for a new malaria project focused on “the expansion of high-quality diagnosis and treatment for malaria and other childhood illnesses and infectious diseases.”

PATH’s Drug Development program, which grew out of an affiliation with OneWorld Health, is advancing a new, semisynthetic form of the malaria drug artemisinin that will bolster the current, volatile botanical supply.

HIV
PATH works in Africa, Asia, and other regions to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide support for people affected by the disease. In Kenya, where PATH has worked for more than 20 years, the organization conducts groundbreaking research into “multipurpose prevention technologies” that can protect women from HIV and pregnancy and provides support groups and health services for married adolescents and other groups at high risk for HIV. It also leads a large project with local governments and community organizations to strengthen and expand services for HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and maternal and newborn health.

Other PATH projects to address HIV in Africa include improving access to HIV treatment and services in Ethiopia and expanding HIV counseling and testing and other services in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

PATH uses behavior change communication techniques to encourage healthy behaviors for HIV prevention. One of the best-known examples is PATH’s work with “magnet theater” in Kenya, India, Vietnam, and other developing countries. Named because of its natural pulling power, this interactive street theater draws people in rural communities to clearings, dirt roads, and village centers—any open space where people can gather. There, actors banter with their audiences and pull them into the play, stimulating dialogue about HIV/AIDS and other taboo subjects and helping individuals re-examine behaviors that contribute to poor health.

PATH works to encourage healthy behaviors. One of the best-known examples is the introduction of “magnet theater,” in Kenya, India, Vietnam, and other developing countries. Named because of its natural pulling power, this interactive street theater draws people in rural communities to clearings, dirt roads, and village centers—any open space where people can gather. There, actors banter with their audiences and pull them into the play, stimulating dialogue about HIV/AIDS and other taboo subjects and helping individuals re-examine behaviors such as smoking that contribute to poor health.

Maternal and child health
In addition to its work on vaccines for childhood illnesses, PATH addresses pregnancy complications, nutrition issues, and other health challenges that affect women and children in developing countries and lead to higher rates of illness and death.

In 2012, PATH completed a seven-year project in India focused on safe birth for mothers and babies. PATH worked with local governments and community groups to encourage community leaders, health workers, pregnant women, and families to deliver babies in health centers, rather than at home, and adopt other best practices to protect mothers and their infants during pregnancy, childbirth, and infancy. The project used community outreach approaches including door-to-door clinical surveillance, distribution of printed health materials, and street theater to spread messages about maternal and newborn health.

In South Africa, PATH leads a five-year project to improve the health and development of 750,000 pregnant women and children by encouraging breastfeeding and improving health care for pregnant women and young children.

Where PATH works
Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, PATH has more than 30 offices in countries around the world. As of December 2012, these countries included Belgium, Cambodia, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Peru, Senegal, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, United States, Vietnam, and Zambia.

PATH currently works in more than 70 countries.

Funding and expenses
PATH's expenses in 2011 were US$284 million, of which more than 40 percent was spent on vaccines and immunization programs and 26 percent spent on emerging and epidemic diseases.

PATH receives funding from foundations, the US government, other governments, nongovernmental organizations, multilateral agencies, and individuals. PATH's budget for 2012 was US $305 million.

In 2010, PATH received the most US foundation grants in the state of Washington and ranked thirteenth among international recipients of US foundation grants.

Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent evaluator of nonprofits, has awarded PATH its highest rating, four stars, for sound fiscal management for nine consecutive years.

Recognition
In 2012, PATH was ranked as the sixth best NGO in the world on the “top 100” list published by The Global Journal.

In 2009, PATH received the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize.

For five years running, Fast Company magazine has named PATH as one of the top social entrepreneurs who are changing the world.

In 2003, PATH received the Tech Museum’s Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni Health Award for its work on the Uniject device, a sterile pre-filled, single-use syringe.

Since 2005, PATH has remained on Forbes’ top 200 list of the 200 largest charities in America.

Requested move

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the proposal was moved to PATH (global health organization). --BDD (talk) 18:27, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Program for Appropriate Technology in Health → PATH – PATH is formally retiring the long version of its official name (Program for Appropriate Technology in Health) in favor of the more frequently used PATH. As such, we would like to move this article to reflect this organizational change. Thank you. --Relisted. Mdann52 (talk) 12:37, 5 September 2013 (UTC) Jbwilke (talk) 19:37, 28 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Hello, do you have a published source to cite to verify this? Thanks.  Blue Rasberry    (talk)   19:42, 28 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Strong oppose this is clearly NOT the appropriate article to replace the current page at PATH. There is no reason to delete the disambiguation page and merge it to a hatnote here, and this is not more prominent than the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) or PATH (Toronto) -- 76.65.128.222 (talk) 01:53, 29 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Comment provided that there is a reliable source for the name change of the NGO (something we haven't seen yet), I see no problem with this move; however, the proposed name is not unique, so a construct like "PATH (global health)" or similar will be needed. -- Scray (talk) 02:33, 29 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Oppose To add to 76.65.128.222 comments, there is no indication that this article is the lead for PATH. The title is best left as is to permit natural disambiguation.--Labattblueboy (talk) 02:54, 29 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Like the company formerly known as "Lucky-Goldstar", we name an article for an organization's current name, not some former name. If reliable sources show that this company's name has changed, we should move the article (with parenthetical disambiguation). Until then, we should not. -- Scray (talk) 03:54, 29 August 2013 (UTC)
 * I could live with PATH (global health). There are a number or "organizations" named PATH.--Labattblueboy (talk) 02:54, 30 August 2013 (UTC)
 * amendment - the article would be moved to PATH (organization), not to take over the disambiguation page at PATH.  Blue Rasberry    (talk)   10:48, 29 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Support. I support a moved to PATH (organisation). LT90001 (talk) 21:28, 29 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Oppose ammendment PATH (organization) and PATH (organisation) should both redirect to the disambiguation page, since there are multiple organizations listed there. If we're going that way, we should (1) use American English, since this organization is based in Seattle, (2) use an unambiguous disambiguator. So... PATH (health organization) would work better. -- 76.65.128.222 (talk) 05:10, 30 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Calling the article "PATH (health organization)" could be an option as there are multiple organizations called PATH. Per Disambiguation there should be an article named PATH (organization) before there is one named PATH (health organization), but being clear is best. Another option is to use PATH (Seattle) as there are already articles for PATH (Atlanta) and PATH (Toronto).  Blue Rasberry    (talk)   10:18, 30 August 2013 (UTC)
 * Note I requested more info, and at her userpage User_talk:Jbwilke posted a link to their state registration which says they do business as "PATH". I also looked on their website PATH.org - it seems that they purged the old acronym entirely.  Blue Rasberry    (talk)   01:10, 6 September 2013 (UTC)
 * move to PATH (global health organization) per nom, other args above.--Obi-Wan Kenobi (talk) 15:54, 6 September 2013 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Copyright problem removed
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Proposed merge with Institute for OneWorld Health
No longer an independent organisation Rathfelder (talk) 20:24, 14 April 2016 (UTC)

Institute for OneWorld Health has disappeared
Institute for OneWorld Health (together with Institute for One World Health is a redirect to this article ... which turns out not to mention it. [I observe the section immediately above this one, and....], would you care to reinform the readers about the Institute? -- Hoary (talk) 08:00, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

I'm afraid I dont know where I got the information. Rathfelder (talk) 19:42, 29 October 2021 (UTC)


 * If we go back in the history of the "Institute of OneWorld Health" article, we see shovelfuls of text that's about PATH, or is unreferenced, or both. This version predates all that. It's eleven years old, but/so perhaps:
 * Salvage this.
 * Copy in a sentence added some time later (I haven't checked when or by whom):
 * Tweak to, adjust categories where desirable, etc.
 * Look for an independent source for the IOWH/PATH relationship.
 * What do you think, Rathfelder (or anyone)? -- Hoary (talk) 00:13, 31 October 2021 (UTC)

Requested move 13 December 2021

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: No consensus. While there wasn't outright opposition, there is enough issue with the change brought up by participants (without a clear answer presented) that no consensus can be said to be have been found during this 40+ day discussion. — Coffee  //  have a ☕️ //  beans  // 02:14, 24 January 2022 (UTC)

PATH (global health organization) → PATH (health organization) – I feel as if the word "global" is unnecessary and makes the name too long, it would be better to shorten the article name a bit. JE98 (talk) 18:57, 13 December 2021 (UTC) — Relisting. Megan B....   It’s all coming to me till the end of time  09:29, 22 December 2021 (UTC)  — Relisting. VR talk 07:41, 30 December 2021 (UTC)  — Relisting. -- Aervanath (talk) 03:29, 11 January 2022 (UTC)


 * I'd support if Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship is deemed not a "health organization", per WP:CONCISE. Sammi Brie  (she/her • t • c) 21:11, 13 December 2021 (UTC)
 * It is both a health organisation and claims to be a global one... isn't that what its alternate name PATH Intl. means? But there's no mention in the article of activities outside of the USA. Confusing. Andrewa (talk) 09:11, 6 January 2022 (UTC)
 * The word "health" appears in Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship once.  Crouch, Swale  ( talk ) 09:51, 12 January 2022 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.