Why study healthcare access in Peru?

Photo: The lunar landscape of the high Peruvian mountain communities.

Everyone we have talked with has a story about their inability to gain access to the healthcare services they self define as needing. Equally, our team has heard (for many years) that healthcare access, specifically access to medical providers and medical specialist, is really lacking in many parts of Peru. However, and this is the most critical part of the "why" we are doing research studies in Peru, few studies actually exist to support such anecdote or suspicion.

Our project is designed to gain a greater foothold in understanding the care delivery needs of isolated, marginalized and underserved communities. We want to take the anecdotes, the assumptions, and the beliefs that are pervasive and provide some firm data to better meet the evolving challenges of Peru.

With an expected 8% economic growth in the next year, Peru is a vastly changing environment. The Peru that HBI started working in some 17-years ago is a very different world. In an attempt to best meet the needs of underserved communities, we need to be continuously gaining a greater understanding of their needs and challenges.