The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) seeks to end global pediatric HIV/AIDS through prevention and treatment programs, research, and advocacy in 19 countries worldwide. The number of new HIV infections among children has declined more than 90% in the U.S. and 70% worldwide. Over its 30-year existence, EGPAF has played a major role in these dramatic reductions in India and many African countries. EGPAF partners with Ministries of Health (MOH) to provide targeted technical assistance to clinicians and to generally strengthen health systems.
EGPAF is a data-dependent organization that relies on timely and accurate data for decision-making. Improved access to and use of data will ultimately save lives, and to accomplish this, the organization is in the process of deploying Power BI globally. For example, this great Power BI dashboard shows the impact EGPAF is having across the globe.
EGPAF also uses Power BI to communicate their achievements to their sponsors using data stories. This Very Early Infant Diagnosis (VEID) data story is a great example.
One of the goals for the EGPAF organization is to enable every employee of EGPAF around the world to make use of the data collected in every country and make informed decisions on this without having to wait for it to be collected centrally. Data collected in Tanzania is different from data collected in Kenya, and EGPAF employees in each country have slightly different questions. To centralize all the data and answer all the different questions is hard. To enable the local teams to make these decisions EGPAF has rolled out Power BI in every country. EGPAF central BI team members Stephanie Bruno and Shannon Lindsay, located in the US, also run Power BI user groups in Washington DC and Pittsburg. In this Power BI community blog post, Stephanie and Shannon describe how Power BI can literally save lives.
As part of their involvement with the PUG they came across a program run by Microsoft called MySkills4Afrika, which aligns well with their own goals. The MySkills4Afrika program allows “Microsoft employees from all over the world volunteer their time, talent and considerable expertise to support the company’s mission to empower every individual on the planet.” EGPAF signed up for this program to organize Power BI training in Africa for their local data analysts, often experienced Excel users. The MySkills organization agreed to host 3 trainings in Africa delivered by members of the Power BI team: Patrick LeBlanc in Lesotho, Kasper de Jonge in Kenya and Maggie Sparkman in Cote d’Ivoire.
