Fall 2023 Spark Award

In Ethiopia, there is a great need for culturally relevant, sustainable palliative care. Profound poverty and limited health care resources magnify the impact of disease in Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in the world. The impacts of high burden of disease and poor access to health care include physical suffering, and detrimental economic effects. Thus, the potential for palliative care to improve health care allocation and reduce suffering is substantial. An immediate action could include harnessing the infrastructure of the iddir, which are centuries-old, indigenous neighborhood organizations that provide care and support for families during the time of a death. We propose a model of community-based palliative care instantiated within iddirs, in which they are trained as volunteers to deliver basic palliative care. Shifting the gaze of global health research towards local solutions in Ethiopia may reveal sustainable, effective strategies to improve care for millions in this vulnerable population. (Source: It Takes a Village: Bringing Palliative Care to Ethiopia | Journal of Palliative Medicine (liebertpub.com)

January 16, 2024 (Source: Fall 2023 Spark Award Recipients Announced < Yale School of Public Health )

The Yale Institute for Global Health has selected Thomas Fernandez, MD; Eleanor Reid, MD, PhD; and Vanessa Ezenwa, PhD to receive the Fall 2023 Spark Award.

Each recipient will receive an award of up to $10,000. The Spark Award aims to provide initial funding to support global health research initiatives and partnerships among YIGH-affiliated faculty. Candidates were selected based on five criteria: innovation, feasibility, sustainability, anticipated outcomes, and alignment with YIGH’s mission to improve the health of individuals and populations worldwide. Below is a summary of the Fall 2023 Spark Award projects and their Principal Investigators:

Eleanor Reid MD, PhD: Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine; Associate Medical Director, Yale Shoreline Emergency Department; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health

Project Summary: The estimated gap in Ethiopia between need for palliative care and access is over 95%, resulting in unnecessary physical suffering and significant costs that are absorbed by the individual and family, often resulting in medical impoverishment. The Spark Award will help create a sustainable, scalable, and Ethiopian-derived model for home-based palliative care delivery by empowering indigenous neighborhood organizations, known as iddirs, to serve as community health workers within their communities. Given the established role of iddirs in Ethiopia, this project will help improve the quality of life of millions of vulnerable Ethiopians and reduce the tremendous costs of illness that often accompany diagnoses of incurable disease.

I am delighted to receive this Spark Award, which will allow my colleagues and I to work with Ethiopian neighborhood community organizations called iddirs to create a sustainable, scalable and Ethiopian-derived model for home-based palliative care delivery. In addition to decreasing physical suffering, we also expect this intervention to reduce the tremendous costs of illness that often accompany diagnoses of incurable disease in this fragile setting.

– Eleanor Reid MD, PhD


Eleanor Reid, MD, PhD < Yale School of Medicine