Individual Reflection Internship at Institute of Public Health: By Lotte Boonen
The honours programme of Maastricht University has a cooperation with the Institute of Public Health(IPH) in India. We, a group of 9 students, are doing a research for the Institute of Public Health about the human resources for health in India. We were invited by IPH...
Individual feedback- Thoughts about our field visits and the health system in India: By Lion Lehmann
In the time span from the 17th of August to the 28th August, we had the chance to see some of the institutions of the Indian health system and talk to some of the important stakeholders. In the subsequent informal report, I will review my experiences. The report will...
Individual reflection internship IPH: By Esther Boudewijns
Although we are already back in the Netherlands for one and a half week, I am still not totally used to it: Dutch food, no honking on the road and a lot of rain instead of the Indian sun. When people ask what the most impressive thing I have done was, it is difficult...
IPH staff attend a regional course on Good Health Research Practice
Dr. Arun Jithendra, Dr. Praveen Aivalli and Dr. Samantha Lobbo, attended a four day regional course on Good Health Research Practice (GHRP) by the Regional Training Center, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia from July 27th - 30th, 2015. The regional course...
Managing Hypertension and Diabetes in Resource Poor Settings:- By Bheemaray V M
According to the Diabetes Atlas 2006, the number of people with diabetes in India is currently around 40.9 million and is expected to rise to 69.9 million by 2025. Similarly, 118 million people were estimated to have high blood pressure in the year 2000, which is...
Internship at the Institute of Public Health, Bangalore: By Hanna Schenck
During my summer of the year 2015, I had the great opportunity to visit the Institute of Public Health in Bangalore and to explore the Indian health system during a few days. During the first half of my internship, I was confronted with the great complexity of the...
ART centres in Uttarakhand: Some reflections from the field: By Supriya Chand
One of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) is to control the spread of HIV/AIDS. This puts a continuing concern on improving health services. Many projects are run by the government to address these concerns effectually. One such program is operation of...
Right to clean air: By Ajeet Pal Singh
The effects of air pollution on the lungs and heart are now widely appreciated, with more incriminating evidence of its role in cardiac disease. Air quality is represented by the annual mean concentration of fine particulate matter: PM10 and PM2.5, referring to...
Coaching 40 students from 25 countries at ITM – Antwerp
Dr N. Devadasan was invited by the ITM Antwerp to help coach their MPH students on local health systems. He was there for the whole month of Sept 2015. It was a great learning opportunity as he was able to interact with health professionals from 25 different countries...
How secure is India’s National Food Security Act? : by Manoj Kumar
Recently food security provisions in India has improved and not surprisingly the country is operating one of the largest food safety nets in the World. However regarding figures related to malnutrition particularly chronic malnutrition, the country is at very poor...
e-learning course on Public Health Management 2015
e-learning course on Public Health Management 2015 After successfully managing three consecutive batches for the online course in Public Health Management (e-PHM), we kick started the fourth batch on 19th of August 2015. This batch brings along with it 31 amazing...
TB Stigma in India- a harsh reality even after five decades of a TB control Programme
In India, tuberculosis (TB) is still a major public health problem. In this blog, the author reflects on the stigma and discrimination faced by TB patients and how it affects their health seeking behaviour. Link to Munegowda CM blog in BMJ can be found...
Breastfeeding practices and child nutrition in India: By Manoj Kumar Patti
Many of us are aware that the importance of breastfeeding in child growth and nutrition.But have we ever wondered, in a developing country like India where many mothers are now into formal or informal work, why is it important to have a mother-friendly...
Generating demand for Health programmes leading to its success: an example of Tuberculosis from northern India: By Moumita Biswas
In India, only 20% people with minor illness, and only 50% people with serious illness come to Government hospitals. Thus, there is a need to understand the reasons influencing health care seeking practices to generate demand for health programmes. Amongst rural and...
Role of NRCs (Nutrition Rehabilitation centre) in preventing malnutrition related deaths among under 5 children in Odisha: By Niranjan Bariyar
Introduction Acute malnutrition or wasting is a failure to gain weight or actual weight loss caused by inadequate food intake, incorrect feeding practices, infections or a combination of these. Considered both a medical and social disorder, Severe Acute Malnutrition...
Harnessing ICT in health care services in India: By Ajay Goel
India with a current population of 1.25 billion is posed to be the highest populated country with 1.6 billion by 2050. Indian public health planners have a huge challenge ahead - to serve and keep population healthy. Health care service resources will not increase in...
Recent advances in Mobile Diagnostics: By Hardik Panchal
The term Medical Devices, as defined in the Food and Drugs Act, covers a wide range of health or medical instruments used in the treatment, mitigation, diagnosis or prevention of a disease or abnormal physical condition. Medical devices are useful for easy diagnostics...
Dr. Devadasan in Nagaland to orient the Government on Health Financing (10-08-2015 to 14-08-2015)
Community Volunteers/Health workers – contribution in improving health services: By Jatinder Chhatwal
As we all know and recognise that community health workers (CHW) are the part of the community and have a significant role to play for our health improvement. There is plenty of scientific evidence wherein community involvement has increased the reach and impact of...
Health Promotion- Rethinking Our Disease Control Strategy: By Janelle de Sa
Health has long been defined as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity ’. This clearly implies the need for promoting ‘holistic’ well-being and comprehensive healthcare that enables people to...
Road Traffic Injuries-An Ignored Public Health Issue in India
(Photo Credits- Biswarup Ganguly) The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.24 million road traffic deaths occur every year globally. Of those, the majority (80%) of deaths occur only in middle income countries.Road traffic injuries are never considered a...
Health Financing – A snapshot of the ePHM course classroom
The institute has been providing an online platform for learning for the past two years. We introduced the online course on public health management for professionals and beginners across the country to gain an understanding of how to be good public health...
How can researchers meet community needs?
This article originally appeared on BMJ Blogs on April 24, 2015 under the same title. This blog is my reflection on regular field visits as part of the urban health action research project that I am currently working on. The field site for the project is a very poor...
Institute of Public Health at KEYSTONE
KEYSTONE is a collective initiative of several Indian health policy and systems research (HPSR) organizations to strengthen and build national capacity in HPSR. KEYSTONE was convened by the Public Health Foundation of India as Nodal Institute for the Alliance for...
IPH faculty at Joint Monitoring Mission for Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme
The World Health Organization , Government of India (GoI) and other technical and donor partners undertook a Joint Monitoring Mission (JMM) to review the India’s Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) from 10-23 April 2015. The last JMM was undertaken in August...
Tobacco control in India—more needs to be done to promote smoking cessation in India
This article originally appeared on BMJ Blogs on April 24, 2015 under the same title. Tobacco use is one of the single largest preventable causes of death and a leading risk factor for non-communicable diseases. The burden of tobacco related illnesses prompted the...
Corporate social responsibility in India
This article originally appeared on BMJ Blogs on May 09, 2014 under the same title. India’s new Companies Act with its rules mandating corporate social responsibility (CSR) came into effect on 1 April 2014. The objective of CSR is for businesses to exist as...
Re-imagining the response to non-communicable diseases in India
This article originally appeared on BMJ Blogs on December 30, 2014 under the same title. It was just another day at the primary health centre (PHC) that I work closely with in the south Indian state of Karnataka. I was in the pharmacy of the PHC, discussing the...
“Anything you get for free is not of good quality”: perceptions of generic medicines
This article originally appeared on BMJ Blogs on March 06, 2015 under the same title. The number of people with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in India is increasing with each passing year. The World Health Organization estimates that NCDs could account for nearly...
Status of AYUSH doctors in the government healthcare delivery system in India
This article originally appeared on BMJ Blogs on February 26, 2015 under the same title. AYUSH—an acronym for Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy—is a system of medicine that has been integrated into the Indian national healthcare delivery system to...