ghdLAB blends classroom learning and action-based field projects. Every year over the course of several months, including an intensive period on site, teams of four experienced graduate students each work with an organization on the front lines of care delivery to address a pressing operational or strategic challenge. The ghdLAB team invests weeks of preparation to develop each project’s focus in collaboration with our partners, with whom we are building ongoing relationships and shared knowledge. For each project, students work with MIT faculty, domain experts, and the leaders and staff in the partner enterprise to bring to bear the best of their MBA toolkit, aiming to deliver a sustained improvement for each host organization that informs and is informed by both classroom and field-based components of the course.

CFK fights abject poverty and promotes youth leadership and ethnic and gender cooperation in Kibera, East Africa’s largest slum. In partnership with the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), CFK runs the Tabitha Clinic, a three-story facility in the heart of Kibera. Even though over 40,000 patients were seen last year, utilization and access to available services have been lower than expected: while the clinic has a daily capacity of about 300 patients, it receives about half that number. By shadowing the staff and patients at the clinic, and carrying out surveys with the help of local peer youth educators in 75 households in 6 villages in Kibera, the MIT team identified some key trends in local health care decisions and values, and delivered an assessment about how to improve utilization through four areas: awareness, pricing, patient equality, and range of services. Key deliverables include a pamphlet design, a template for flyers advertising monthly Wednesday health forums, and a work-in-progress pricing model.