“ASPIRE-ing Oral Health Equity in India”

by jeevan@iphindia.org | Jul 5, 2024 | Blog, Latest Updates

ASPIRE (Agenda Setting for Oral Health Policy in India – Research on Neglect and Evaluation) Project is a DBT Wellcome Trust India Alliance Early Career Fellowship (2024-2029) awarded to Dr Rajeev B R.

This research proposal aims to investigate the neglect of oral health policy in India, focusing on the agenda-setting process. The study seeks to understand the factors contributing to this neglect and its impact on policy formulation, with the hypothesis that key global events have influenced the agenda-setting for oral health in India. The objectives include understanding existing content on oral health in policy documents, exploring policymakers’ perspectives, comparing the policy formulation processes of Brazil and India, and engaging with policy entrepreneurs. The research will employ a case study design guided by Kingdon’s Multiple Streams approach. The methodology involves a comprehensive search of policy documents, interviews with policymakers, and thematic analysis. Comparative policy analysis with Brazil will also be conducted. The expected outcomes include informing policy formulation, creating awareness, influencing resource allocation, fostering partnerships, and catalysing policy reforms. This research addresses the neglect of oral health and aims to bring about positive changes in policies and initiatives. By providing insights into the agenda-setting process and advocating for evidence-based policies, this project can contribute to improving oral health outcomes in India.

This project is supervised by Dr Pragati Hebbar (Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru), and mentored by Dr Manu Raj Mathur (Public Health Foundation of India, India). The external collaborators include Dr Sara Van Belle (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium) and Dr Roger Keller Celeste (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil). Dr Prashanth N S (Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru) will act as a sponsor.

EPHP 2024

by iphindia | Jun 28, 2024 | Blog, EPHP, Events, Latest Updates, post_slider

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Date

5-7 September 2024

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Venue

Indian Institute of Management Bengaluru, Karnataka

SUBMIT ABSTRACT

Last date: 7th-July-2024

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM Bangalore), and the George Institute for Global Health with support from Health Systems Global are organising the fourth edition of “Bringing Evidence to Public Health Policy” (EPHP) from September 5th to 7th at IIM Bangalore, India.

EPHP (bringing Evidence into Public Health Policy) has served as a unique platform for promoting exchanges among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers for better population health since 2010. Each EPHP aims to contribute to informed policy and action by focusing on concepts and initiatives that can make a significant difference to health through informed policymaking.

EPHP2024 aims to advance dialogue among researchers, policymakers, and decision-makers on “Health governance, policy and institutional frameworks for just and sustainable health systems”. This theme is derived from the eighth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR2024) (to be held from November 18th to 22nd in Nagasaki, Japan) but will focus on regional and national lessons in order to enhance exchange and develop lessons for reform and research in India and beyond.

Themes
EPHP2024 seeks to explore the symposium’s sub-themes, indicated below, with the addition of a theme mutually agreed upon by the Scientific Committee:

Governance and institutional frameworks for complex health systems
Governance to strengthen public health & address commercial and cultural determinants
Stewardship of digital transformations including AI and big data
Implementation Research: Innovations in method and translation

Each of the sub themes will be converted into a half-day session. Each session will feature a keynote talk by an Indian and international speaker highlighting the global and Indian scenario on a particular sub-theme followed by a panel discussion where policy makers, implementers, community representatives, academicians and change makers will offer some solutions to fill the current gaps. In addition to these plenaries, there will be space for researchers to present their research findings on various aspects of governance through oral presentations/ posters / art / photos etc. There will also be a skill building session on the 7th September for early career researchers.

Organisers
EPHP2024 is supported by a host of academic partners including the National Institute for Implementation Research on Non-Communicable Diseases (NIIR-NCD), the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp (ITM), the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), The National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), the Institute of Public Health Bengaluru (IPH), and the George Institute for Global Health, India.

Support from Health Systems Global Board Membership and Secretariat is gratefully acknowledged.

Abstract submission is open till 7 July 2024!
Click here to learn more and submit an abstract.

Contact Us:
For more information and to register, please contact: ketki@iphindia.org

Dr. Prashanth N S as vice-chair of the General Council, ITM, Antwerp

by jeevan@iphindia.org | Jun 17, 2024 | Blog, Latest Updates

Dr. Prashanth N S, Director & Senior Fellow at IPH Bengaluru has been voted as the Vice-Chair of the General Council (the overall body that provides strategic oversight) of the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp (Belgium). Prashanth has been an alumnus of ITM and has also completed a term as a member of the General Council. The vice-chair is an honorary position. Sharing the news after the meeting, Dr Prashanth noted the fond memories of the long institutional collaboration between IPH Bengaluru and ITM, that was recalled by the Director and other members of the General Council. ITM members also noted IPH’s emergence as an active hub of innovative research and learning in the region.

Virtual meeting featuring a few of IPH related slides including Dr. Upendra Bhojani’s recent participation in the alumni meeting in Nepal. The appearance of IPH”s work in this year’s ITM Podcast (Transmission) was also noted.

“Living with Snakes – Pop Up”

by jeevan@iphindia.org | May 15, 2024 | Blog, Health Equity and Evaluation, Latest Updates

There are about 4,000 species of snakes reported globally and just about 20% of them are venomous, although there are about 60,000 deaths caused due to snake bite incidents every year in India, there are no reports of any snake species that chase or eat humans. These and many other facts and myths, dos and don’ts are part of the “Living with Snakes – Pop Up” awareness campaign posters part of One Health.

These posters have been carefully crafted in English and Assamese by designer and illustrator Malavika Sagar and educator Chandini Chhabra from Liana Trust, with contributions from Shradha Rathod and Dr. Nandini Velho from Canopy Collective. Translations were done by Dr. Runu Dutta and Dr. Abhilasha Sharma. Photographs were provided by Aamod Zambre, Nilanjan Mukherjee, Rohan Pandit, Gerry Martin, and Kime Rambia.

One Health is an India Alliance Public Engagement Grant focused on Exploring One Health through films and collaborations in North-East India, through two filmmakers Hansatanu Roy and Daiolang Paslein, in their own words, who are collaborating with Green Hub, the Institute of Public Health, and Dr. Nandini Velho, ORA India Fellow and Project Lead at Canopy Collective.

Harmless Snakes Around Us_A3 (1)-compressed

Venomous Snakes Around Us_A3 (1)-compressed

Women In IPH

by iphindia | Apr 1, 2024 | Blog

"Women in IPH"

This year the theme is “Invest in women: Accelerate progress”.
Public health cannot be imagined without the role of women who form the backbone of public health services. Be it in research, education, clinical trials, outreach programs or field visits, women are a crucial part of the efforts to achieve the public health goals.
At the Institute of Public Health Bengaluru, we celebrated our women and took an opportunity to showcase the contributions of the women at our institute. We featured some inspiring journeys and contributions like how our women PhD scholars are not just spearheading large public health projects but are mentoring several other early career researchers and contributing to institutional committees and processes. By creating educational online courses on scientific writing, women are imparting knowledge through e-learning applications. From explaining and discussing with a tribal family for a routine health check-up to drawing blood samples for sickle cell testing, the Adivasi women who are engaged in the outreach approaches have broken the barriers of isolation and have gained the confidence of their tribe to actively participate in the public health initiatives. From curating a leadership course, engaging in the management of the institute, leading large-scale complex health systems research studies, to recording anthropometric measures of a newborn child, women are leading the way. Here is a look at the public health contributions of the women at IPH Bengaluru.

SPOORTHI – Inspiring future leaders (A blended leadership course by the Institute of Public Health Bengaluru)

by iphindia | Mar 6, 2024 | Blog

What is SPOORTHI?
SPOORTHI is a blended leadership course to inspire future leaders in the field of public health. The word spoorthi means inspiration and/ or enthusiasm. And the intent of developing this course was to enthuse and inspire budding leaders to take on leadership roles more confidently. What started as an internal capacity building of the next line of leadership at IPH Bengaluru will now be offered to all as there is a dearth of such curated material for individuals from the non-profit sector in public health.

Topics covered
The online phase introduced the participants to what is leadership, the various styles of leadership, the journey of leadership at IPH Bengaluru, skills and qualities essential for leadership in public health.

Whereas the face to face component delved into collectively exploring individual and institutional leadership journeys, hand-on application of communication and moderation skills.

Duration and format
This blended course had online modules on a learning management system, live catch up sessions with internal and external facilitators followed by a 2-day face to face final immersion.

The total duration of the course is 3 months

About the 1st cohort
Spoorthi began the leadership course online by introducing the concepts to the participants and holding group activities. The 2-day in-person immersion utilised a participatory approach to facilitate a safe space as the participants explored their strengths and styles of leadership, internalised the IPH journey and refined their communication and leadership skills. Fun-filled activities that would include identifying a person with their interests rolled into a paper ball. Who would’ve imagined a snowball fight would be so much fun to help us know each other better and get Spoorthi course going on Day-1. Participants embarked on their individual leadership journey by self assessing their leadership qualities, gauging their strengths and priorities. This was followed by an engaging session on how leadership looks like in our day-to-day practice to make the concepts more tangible and relatable. Not just this, the participants also got a sense of the flipside of leadership and how to be mindful and manage such challenges. The intense day ended with lovely fireside pitches/ stories and songs.

On Day – 2 participants took a deep dive into leadership exploring their alignment of individual visions with that of the institutional goals. Lastly a time capsule activity and a time travel of sorts over the last two decades to revisit our past, analyse our present and envision the future. That was a wrap to the phenomenal experiential learning to inspire our future leaders.

Course developers – Dr. Pragati Hebbar, Assistant Director Research and Dr. Tanya Seshadri, Assistant Director Education

What next? – The second cohort will soon be launched… Watch this space for more details