IPH Faculty and Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance research fellows Upendra Bhojani and Pragati Hebbar attended the 9th Annual Fellows’ Meet in Bengaluru from June 13 – 15th 2019. The annual fellows meet serves as a platform to bring together India Alliance Fellows and other grant recipients from prestigious research institutes together to foster collaboration, support and exchange of ideas across a wide range of research areas.
Both Pragati and Upendra presented their work during the first year of their fellowships through scientific poster sessions. Upendra Bhojani was invited to present his work and research supported by India Alliance during this meet. Upendra gave a talk titled “Commercial Determinants of health: the political economy of tobacco in India”, available for viewinghere.
Given the present focus on and the growing concern of
the role of corporations in promoting products and choices that are mass produced
and are in general detrimental to health, Upendra’s talk was relevant and well-received.
At the Fellows meet, new committee members were introduced. Wellcome Trust and DBT India Alliance also launched new grant opportunities such as the Team Science Grants and grants to establish virtual Clinical/Public Health Research Centres, in order to provide a platform for collaborating and strengthening important research initiatives in India.
The conference aimed to showcase the role of Implementation Science in promoting a culture of evidence-based health and other social development programmes, policies, and practices. It was an excellent attempt to bridge the gap between research and policy making.
The GCIS was a very good platform to network with like-minded researchers and engaging policymakers to listen to the success stories through the use of Implementation Sciences to influence programme, policy, and practice.
Dr. Upendra Bhojani was invited to participate in a National Consultation on Tobacco and Lung Health organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) country office in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in New Delhi on 31st May 2019 to observe the occasion of World No Tobacco Day (WNTD). The annual World No Tobacco Day is organised by the WHO for advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption and engaging stakeholders across multiple sectors in the fight for tobacco control. The theme for 2019, “Tobacco and Lung Health” focuses on “the negative impact that tobacco has on people’s lung health, from cancer to chronic respiratory disease and the fundamental role lungs play for the health and well-being of all people.” During the award ceremony, prizes were awarded to acknowledge the work of individuals and organizations in their exceptional efforts toward promoting tobacco control in India. Additionally, scientific documents titled
Tobacco use and Lung Health: From evidence to policy in India
were released during the event, providing an overview of tobacco use and providing multi-pronged recommendations to reduce the burden of tobacco attributable lung diseases in India. An official website dedicated to the National Tobacco Control Program was also launched during the same day.
This workshop and public dialogue examined critical questions in the context of dynamic policy environments and brought together academics, practitioners and others interested in the role of professional medical associations as key stakeholders in shaping health policy. The panelists shared their research and experiences, methodological challenges and together came up with ideas and strategies for further research and action in the context of the present and increasingly globalized world of biomedicine.
The workshop was organised by Dr. Veena Sriram from UChicago Center for Health and the Social Sciences. The other panelists included prominent health researchers and key stakeholders from various organizations including Dr. Arima Mishra (Azim Premji University), Dr. Sorcha Brophy (University of Chicago), Dr. Rama Baru (Jawaharlal Nehru University) and Dr. Anant Bhan (President, International Association of Bioethics).
The Health Equity Network India (HENI) secretariat at IPH Bengaluru is pleased to announce the thirteenth webinar in the Equilogues series in May 2019.
Theme: Gender Inequities in Publicly Funded Health Insurance Schemes
Summary of the talk: In this webinar, the speaker unravels gender inequities in social protection mechanisms for health and challenges the gender neutrality stance of publicly funded health insurance schemes (PFHIS). She discusses the several gender-based barriers in the pathway to access healthcare under the PFHIS drawing from her recently completed a doctoral study on Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme. Concepts such as ‘household’, ‘access’ and ‘coping’ are revisited using a gender lens.
About the speaker: Rajalakshmi RamPrakash is a researcher and a social activist on gender and health-based out of Chennai. She has a Masters in Social Work and a Doctorate in Social Sciences from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She has been involved in several research studies on themes intersecting gender with sexual and reproductive health, law, ethics, health insurance and health systems. She is a member of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, Gender & Evaluation Community and is currently with Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), Chennai.
