Saving children’s lives through global knowledge exchange

Pediatric Health Initiative was founded in late 2018 by a group of doctors and nurses at Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden.

Our aim is to support the progress of pediatric health care in low-and middle income countries and to facilitate education of Swedish pediatric staff in pediatric care with a global perspective. 

Background

The core spirit of our association has evolved from pediatric doctors and nurses who share the desire to extend our practice and understanding of child health to other countries and health care contexts, by building empowering bilateral partnerships.

It all began a few years earlier, with the creation of an “international friendship group”, involving people with an interest in global pediatrics. Many of the group members had personal experience and professional contacts with pediatric hospitals in other countries.

Hans Lindblad, Head of Department of Pediatrics at the time, was one of the lead members of the group and an enthusiastic visionary for international collaborations.  

After his sudden and tragic passing in 2014, the group divided into smaller fractions for some time. But in Hans’ spirit, individual collaborations between Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital and colleagues at hospitals in other parts of the world - Tanzania and Uganda in particular - were beginning to thrive. As these collaborations deepened, the need for a formal organization to better manage our work was increasingly apparent – and Pediatric Health Initiative was created in Dec of 2018.  

Our mission

Pediatric Health Initiative [PHI] supports the spread of quality pediatric care and its development and progress in low and middle-income countries. We also actively work towards increasing the knowledge and understanding of global pediatrics among Swedish doctors, nurses and other health care staff. This is done by close collaborations between staff at Swedish hospitals and staff at hospitals in low- and middle-income countries encouraging long-term and continuous education, staff exchanges and evaluation/research activities.