From October 6-10, 2025, global health leaders gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the International Conference on Primary Health Care (ICPHC), organized by the International Institute for Primary Care – Ethiopia in collaboration with the Ethiopia Ministry of Health and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Last Mile Health co-sponsored the convening, which brought together government delegations, technical experts, advocates, and partners to advance the conversation on sustainable, people-centered primary healthcare in low- and middle-income countries.
Last Mile Health’s delegation included representatives from our Ethiopia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and global teams. In collaboration with the Ethiopia Ministry of Health, Gates Foundation, and Africa CDC, we highlighted our shared work to improve health outcomes in rural and remote communities.
Here are the some highlights from our engagement:
Concurrent session: “Empowering Ethiopia’s frontline: How blended learning and AI are shaping the future of the Health Extension Program”
“In today’s evolving funding landscape, investing in interventions that improve the quality of care while reducing costs is exactly what governments should prioritize. That’s why we’re working to scale up the use of AI-powered assistants to provide real-time guidance to frontline health workers.” — Aklog Getnet, Head of the Health Center Services Desk at Ethiopia’s Federal Ministry of Health
To meet the demands of training a community health workforce of more than 40,000, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health partnered with Last Mile Health in 2021 to develop an innovative blended learning approach that reduces costs while driving knowledge and skill gains. Today, the Ministry has formally adopted the approach and is working to scale it nationally for all community health worker training. In this session, Last Mile Health’s Abraham Zerihun Megentta and Dr. Mardieh Dennis joined Dr. Lidiya Tefera from Gates Foundation, Aklog Getnet from the Ethiopia Federal Ministry of Health, and community health worker Zinash Bogale to discuss this transformative approach and our newest innovation together: a call center for community health workers providing standardized, AI-powered guidance on case management. Panelists shared lessons learned from this partnership to date—and the plans to achieve even greater impact in the future. Learn more about the session and our shared work.
Concurrent session: “Strengthening community health worker programs with innovations in data collection and use: Lessons from Sierra Leone and beyond”
This panel showcased how Sierra Leone is using data innovations to strengthen community health worker programs. Last Mile Health’s Dr. Divya Nair and Joseph Sesay joined Meredith Kimball from Gates Foundation, Elizabeth Musa from the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health, and Dr. Landry Tsague from Africa CDC to highlight how cost-effective and flexible tools like phone-based surveys can inform policy decisions on recruitment, training, and supervision. Learn more about this work.
Concurrent session: “Community health workers at the frontlines: Scaling impact through local adaptation”
Last Mile Health’s Dr. Mardieh Dennis joined this session highlighting how local adaptation, rigorous evaluation, and forward-looking investment are key to unlocking community health workers’ full potential. She shared insights into our work in Liberia to continuously improve the national community health worker program in partnership with the Ministry of Health.
Roundtable: “Leveraging community health innovations for non-communicable diseases (NCDs): Lessons learned from Last Mile Health”
Last Mile Health’s Dr. Tibebu Benyam and Dr. Etsegenet Arega shared lessons learned from our partnership with the Ethiopia Ministry of Health to launch the country’s first-ever training on NCDs for community health workers using blended learning as well as from our pilot program to distribute near-vision glasses in remote communities. Learn more about what makes community health workers a good fit to take on NCDs and how Ethiopia’s workforce is demonstrating what this can look like in action.
Workshop: “HEP Assist: AI-powered support for health extension workers”
Last Mile Health’s Tamene Feyissa and Tsegab Abebaw provided a demonstration of HEP Assist, a new AI-powered call center for health extension workers. In this workshop session, they facilitated knowledge exchange on the role of AI in enhancing health worker training and service delivery in low-resource settings and gathered feedback from attendees to inform greater usability and impact.
Research: “Listening to mothers: Experiential quality of community health workers versus facility-based care of children under five in Grand Bassa, Liberia”
Last Mile Health’s Dr. Mardieh Dennis, with Last Mile Health research advisors Dr. Lisa Hirschhorn and Dr. John Kraemer, discussed results of a study comparing the experiential quality of primary care provided by community health workers and facility providers and the impact of health system responsiveness on experiential quality outcomes in a resource limited setting.
Concurrent session: “Co-designing change: Human-centered pathways to adaptable PHC systems”
Last Mile Health’s Dr. Netsanet Fatene joined this session dedicated to exploring practical human-centered design approaches for underserved populations, including children in rural and remote communities. He shared insights into how we are using participatory methods to build more responsive, sustainable services in Ethiopia.
We were honored to join Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health and partners for this powerful week of learning, sharing, and uniting toward a future where primary care is within reach for everyone, everywhere.
