The Guardian's Global Development Professionals Network organized an online conversation with experts on improving child health through community-based care, namely integrated community case management (ICCM).

"ICCM is a key investment because many children and families live too far from a viable health center to reach needed basic care in time that could save the child’s life," said MSH's Global Technical Lead on Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Ciro Franco, MD, MPH, during the September 12 #GlobalDevLive discussion. "ICCM should start with the full consensus of the communities and an assessment of the support system behind it that will enable the community health workers to do their job in an efficient and effective way."

In addition to Dr. Franco (of @MSHHealthImpact), the expert panel included:

• Atilio Rivera-Vasquez, International Medical Corps UK (@IntMedCorps_UK);
• Margaret Njenga, World Vision, Kenya (@MaggieLelo);
• Helen Counihan, Malaria Consortium, UK (@fightingmalaria);
• Emanuele Capobianco, UNICEF Mozambique (@ecapobianco);
• David Mukanga, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (@GatesFoundation);
• Tamara Bugembe, African Child Health (@tbugembe);
• Franco Pagnoni, Global Malaria Programme, World Health Organisation (@WHO);
• Seyi Soremekun, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (@SeyiSoremekun); and
• Christopher Hedrick, Stomping out Malaria in Africa, Senegal (@hedrickchris).

Read The Guardian's top 20 summary and our Storify story highlighting key conversations below.

More on MSH's approach to maternal, newborn, and child health

Rachel Hassinger, online communications specialist at MSH, is editor of the Global Health Impact Blog.