BHB Newsletter

English Version

Work begins on an all-inclusive management information system for DGME

BHB is supporting the Directorate General of Medical Education (DGME) to develop a comprehensive management information system in a year-long process. BHB hired a consulting firm to develop a wide range of solutions for the digitalization of almost all medical education management functions. The DGME Director General and his colleagues met with the consulting firm […]

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Strengthening disease surveillance for the next pandemic

The devastating COVID-19 pandemic experience made governments across the world confront the need for a strong national disease surveillance system and response. The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), in the forefront of Bangladesh’s pandemic response, wanted to assess the existing disease surveillance system as a first step toward improving its strength, responsiveness, and effectiveness.

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Inauguration of the DGDA automated drug licensing and renewal system

The DGDA wanted to streamline the retail drug outlet licensing and renewal process to better track licensing status and to make the process easier for applicants, so BHB hired an information technology firm to develop software to automate the system. For several months, the system underwent many reviews and received feedback and was piloted under

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Spotting unlicensed private drug shops in eight divisional city corporations

Having a valid drug license from DGDA is mandatory to operate any private drug shop; however, thousands of drug shops are doing business without a DGDA license. Without more staff, DGDA has difficulty in monitoring the situation. As DGDA’s partner in improving good pharmacy practice in Bangladesh, starting on November 21, 2021, BHB began helping

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BHB helps commemorate World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021

BHB supported the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) of the Government of Bangladesh to commemorate World Antimicrobial Awareness Week from November 18 to 24, 2021. The Honorable Minister for Health and Family Welfare of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Mr. Zahid Maleque, MP, formally kicked off the week at a special event at the

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Happy New Year 2022!

Happy new year and greetings to all our readers. 2021 was an eventful year for the Better Health in Bangladesh (BHB) project and for our organization, Management Sciences for Health (msh.org). Our substantial achievements were possible thanks to strong support from our partners, donor, and particularly the people for whom we focus our efforts. At

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NEW TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Assessing the national disease surveillance system: The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated to countries the urgency to revisit their national disease surveillance systems. In this context, the Line Director of Communicable Disease Control at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) asked BHB to review Bangladesh’s disease surveillance system and provide recommendations to strengthen it with an

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FINAL REPORT ON “DEVELOPING COMPETENCY-BASED ALLIED HEALTH WORKFORCE”

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s (MOHFW) Directorate General of Medical Education (DGME) asked BHB to help facilitate an assessment and development of recommendations to develop a competency-based allied health workforce; BHB hired a local firm, ARK Foundation, through competitive bidding for this work. On September 29, 2021, a dissemination workshop was held with

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BHB OBSERVES WORLD PHARMACISTS DAY 2021

BHB observed World Pharmacists Day 2021 by organizing a webinar on September 26, 2021. The Director General of Drug Administration, Major General Mahbubur Rahman, was the chief guest and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Health Specialist, Dr. Shehlina Ahmed, was the special guest. The 280+ participants included officials from DGDA and the Pharmacy

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CHATTOGRAM’S 192 PRIVATE DRUG SHOPS RECEIVE ACCREDITATION CERTIFICATES FROM DGDA

In a special event on October 21, 2021, the Director General of Drug Administration presented accreditation certificates to 192 private drug shops and one pharmacy that met the criteria in the Chattogram city corporation area. The outlets will now be designated as Model Medicine Shops and Model Pharmacy. The Director General’s four-day visit to Chattogram

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BHB EXCEEDS TARGET TO CONDUCT ACCREDITATION PRE-ASSESSMENTS FOR DRUG SHOPS

In July 2021, BHB completed pre-assessing 10,697 private drug shops, which exceeded its 2021 target of 10,000. The pre-assessment is the first step of the Directorate General of Drug Administration (DGDA) drug shop accreditation program that BHB supports. The accreditation process has six steps as shown below: Six steps of accreditation of private drug shops

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Development of competency-based training for Bangladesh’s allied health workforce

BHB supports the Directorate General of Medical Education to develop a competency-based training program the allied health workforce—paraclinical medical technologists, pharmacy technicians, radiotherapists, dental technologists, etc. BHB recruited the ARK Foundation to develop a situational analysis of the educational system that they presented on 9 August 2021 in a meeting chaired by Director General Professor

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5th BHB Technical Management Committee Meeting

The BHB Technical Management Committee had their fifth meeting on 8 August 2021 online. Nine participants represented the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), DGDA, Pharmacy Council of Bangladesh, BCDS, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, United States Agency for International Development, World Health Organization, United States Pharmacopeia-Promoting the Quality of Medicines, BHB, and

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Members of BCDS oriented on the DGDA Automated Drug Licensing and Renewal System

The DGDA wants to streamline retail drug outlet licensing and renewal to better track licensing status and to make the process easier for license applicants. BHB hired an IT firm and worked with DGDA to develop the Automated Drug Licensing and Renewal System. As the largest body representing retail outlet owners, the BCDS received a

Members of BCDS oriented on the DGDA Automated Drug Licensing and Renewal System Read More »

“BHB’s training to Grade C pharmacy technicians needs scaling up.”

  Grade C pharmacy technicians dominate the dispenser profession in retail medicine outlets. To prepare retail medicine outlets for accreditation, BHB has trained 5,059 Grade C pharmacy technicians. To determine the training’s effectiveness, icddr,b compared the dispensing practices of 220 trained and 220 un­trained Grade C pharmacy technicians from 11 districts using direct observation and

“BHB’s training to Grade C pharmacy technicians needs scaling up.” Read More »