ICEHA's Unique Strengths

Using an innovative program model, ICEHA leverages the wealth of medical expertise in the West for maximum impact on national health systems in developing countries. Focused on the HIV pandemic and infectious diseases, ICEHA's volunteer clinical mentors equip local health professionals with the skills they need to provide the best care for their patients, enabling developing countries to fight epidemics from within.

Unique strengths that distinguish ICEHA include:

• Provides rapid skill transfer using an innovative method of clinical mentoring instead of merely sending foreign healthcare professionals to provide direct patient care in developing countries.
• Builds national healthcare capacity in resource-poor settings. Maximum return on investment.
• Proven scalability from pilot program to national level.
• Proven replicability of the program model across countries, across continents.
• A simple program model designed for sustainability.
• Structured implementation in the field; structured recruitment and preparationof candidates in the West.
• A small financial investment has a significant, exponential impact: it takes four volunteer clinical mentors to train 20 - 25 local healthcare providers. Each trained local healthcare provider is capable of providing care to 250 - 300 HIV infected patients. In addition, once trained they all proceed to training their colleagues in-country.
• Extreme leverage: Volunteer clinical mentors contribute 6 to 12 weeks of their time on a pro bono basis, recruitment and preparation costs in the West are funded through Western funding sources, program costs within developing countries are funded through local, in-country sources.
• Strong quality control allows ICEHA to ensure that the quality of skill transfer delivered by the clinical mentors is high in all settings and consistent throughout any given country.

ICEHA's Operating Principles:

• Requests for assistance originate within developing countries.
• ICEHA's programs do not take place in a vacuum, but rather form an integral part of national strategies to combat epidemics.
• For sustainability reasons, ICEHA caters completely towards the resources available within a given setting. We do not attempt to change the material resources available, but rather work to optimize the quality of healthcare delivered despite the existing resource limitations.
• ICEHA does not open local offices but rather forms close partnerships with local, indigenous organizations which become responsible for coordinating local logistics and local program management under supervision by ICEHA. Most often, the local organization is the official "face" of ICEHA's program within their country borders.