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Azerbaijan
AIHA’s partnership program in Azerbaijan began in 1999; four partnerships were established since that time, one of which is still being actively funded. Each of these partnerships focused on primary care and two established Primary Healthcare Centers—one in Baku and another in Ganja.A partnership linking the capital city of Baku with Portland, Oregon, was established in 2001 with the overall goal of developing a comprehensive, community-based, primary care system designed to meet basic healthcare needs and improve the status of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees in the Narimanov Health Care District in Baku. Key to this initiative was the establishment of a Primary Healthcare Center, which opened in May 2004. In addition to offering a wide range of comprehensive primary care services, the clinic also houses a community health education and resource center that serves as a base of operation for existing programs on women's health, asthma, mental health, and substance abuse prevention for students and young adults.
As a result of the work done at the Primary Healthcare Center, partners report that the rate of timely disease detection has increased by 19 percent.
A partnership between Azerbaijan’s second largest city, Ganja, and Livermore, California, was established in 2004 to improve the quality, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness of primary healthcare services available to the citizens of Ganja. With the assistance of the US partners, the residents of Ganja formally established the Ganja/Livermore Community Health Advisory Board (CAB) in March 2005. The board provided input on health issues affecting the residents served by the lead Azerbaijani partner institution, Polyclinic No. 6, where the model Primary Healthcare Center was established. The CAB included community members, area physicians, nurses, directors of the polyclinic, local government health officials, and the Learning Resource Center coordinator. In March 2005, partners from the graduated Baku/Portland partnership conducted a workshop on family medicine for Ganja primary care providers where priority areas were identified for the Ganja Primary Healthcare Center. The partners also defined a process, implementation plan and outcomes for introducing family medicine. The model Primary Healthcare Center in Ganja opened its doors in September 2006.
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