DEVELOPING AND CONDUCTING A POLICY-RELEVANT EVALUATION OF A MDR-TB HEALTHCARE PROVIDER TRAINING PROGRAM TO INFORM FUTURE DECISIONS ON RESOURCE ALLOCATION IN CHINA

Abstract

To address the need to prevent the development of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and existing challenges in MDT-TB/TB case management in China, the Lilly MDR-TB Partnership launched pilot training programs for MDR-TB healthcare providers (HCP) across 11 high-burden provinces in China to standardize their diagnostic and treatment behaviors. A decision needed to be made by policymakers about whether the training program should be scaled up to other provinces using internal funding from the national government. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to develop and conduct a policy-relevant evaluation of the pilot MDR-TB HCP training program. Specifically, we systematically examined current literature on HCP training evaluations, identified key information needs of stakeholders and policymakers in China when evaluating training programs, developed and conducted an evaluation study based on the findings from literature review and interviews with Chinese policymakers.