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Road Safety Policy event

by iphindia | Apr 8, 2016 | Latest Updates, Uncategorized

On the occasion of World Health Day, IPH in collaboration with MES College organises an event on Road Safety

PRESS RELEASE

“KARNATAKA GOVT COMMITTED FOR STRONGER ROAD SAFETY POLICY” – Heath minister U.T. Khader

City youngsters want some serious action from the government in this regard.

Bengaluru: Karnataka health minister UT Khader on Wednesday, which also happens to be the eve of “World Health Day”, said that the state government is committed for a stronger road safety policy so that many lives can be saved from road crashes every day.

Participating in a road safety event organized by the Institute of Public Health (IPH), a city-based organization working on research and advocacy in the health sector, on Wednesday, 6 April 2016, Khader said to do their best to attend to the woes of victims of road crashes. The state government has introduced schemes such as Harish Scheme, Bike Ambulances etc. “We understand that a lot needs to be done and for the realization of the same, we are in full support of a stronger road safety policy” he added.

Dr N Devadasan, director of IPH said that “India loses more than 2 lakh people every year on the roads and Karnataka is the fourth worst state for number of road deaths in India. Unfortunately, road safety has not received needed priority from public health experts. IPH that has been working on priority health issues since last 10 years has decided to take up road safety as a priority issue on work front. We are supporting the national campaign for a stronger road safety law and will be presenting a detailed action plan before the state government soon” he added.

Dr Upendra Bhojani, assistant director at IPH opined that state government has taken positive steps such as notifying state road safety policy, mandating helmet use for pillion rider and providing schemes for medical relief to road crash victims. “Having set a positive example, it would be apt to see Karnataka government now pushing for and supporting comprehensive legislation on road safety at national level.”

Students want govt. to save young lives

On the occasion, students from M.E.S. Teachers college, well-known education institution in the city, thanked the Karnataka government for the steps taken to ensure safety to lives on the road, and they also requested the ministers for a stronger intervention from the government to form a better road safety policy.

Dr. Vishal Rao, renowned Head and Neck Cancer Surgeon from HCG Hospital, Prof. H. S. Ganesh Bhatt, principal of M.E.S. Teacher College and students took part in the event.

Road Safety Presentation By Dr Upendra Bhojani Click here

Road safety program, public health, public health management, Health system, world health day

‘Even doctors feel generic drugs are sub-standard’- IPH staff quoted in the Hindu

by iphindia | Mar 28, 2016 | Latest Updates

‘Even doctors feel generic drugs are sub-standard’

Many patients are denied affordable treatment, as they prefer to buy branded drugs that sometimes cost as much as 7 to 8 times more and deny

A 67-year-old woman in Tumakuru visited a private doctor for a chronic ailment. She was advised some expensive drugs. Even though she was short on funds and struggling to make ends meet, she set aside money to buy medication for two months. Two months later, when she ran out of money, she stopped taking the medicines and discontinued treatment.

Another woman in her fifties in K.G. Halli, Bengaluru, takes her medicine for hypertension only when ‘her legs swell’, something she has noticed happens every time her blood pressure shoots up. Once the swelling stops, she stops taking medicines, because she cannot afford them regularly.

Branded drugs sometimes cost as much as 7 to 8 times as generic drugs. But in spite of their low cost, the public remains suspicious of the effectiveness of generic medicines.

“There is a strong perception among the public, and to our surprise, even practitioners and pharmacists, that generic medicines are of sub-standard quality,” said Praveenkumar Aivalli, Research Officer, Institute of Public Health (IPH), Bengaluru. A team of researchers from IPH, including Dr. Aivalli, have conducted a three-year study on access to generic medicines for non-communicable diseases, the results of which will be published shortly.

As part of the study, three taluks in Tumakuru district were randomly chosen and around 1,000 to 1,200 houses surveyed. The team found that public awareness of generic drugs was very low and people hesitated to visit primary health centres (PHCs), preferring private hospitals even when they could barely afford to. They found a similar poor perception of generic drugs among residents in K.G. Halli, Bengaluru.ÿ Comparing figures from 2013 to 2016, the availability of drugs in PHCs had greatly improved in the period.

To read more ‘Even doctors feel generic drugs are sub-standard’ : Click here

What I learnt from my first health system research project

by iphindia | Mar 16, 2016 | ATM, Blog, Latest Updates

Dr Praveenkumar Aivalli blog titled, ” What I learnt from my first health system research project ” published in BioMed Central

Starting my first research project

Back in 2013, I just stepped out of my university after getting my Master of Public Health degree, in no time I was given an excellent opportunity to work on a World Health Organization (WHO) funded health system research project in one of the reputed public health research institutes in Bangalore. It was the first research project of my public health career and as a new bee, I was buzzing with excitement and enthusiasm about the study.

The project was on improving NCD (Non Communicable Diseases) care at primary health centers in one of the districts in south India. It was a quasi experimental study trying to understand the impact of health system interventions through a baseline and end line household and facility surveys.

For better coordination, exposure and learning, I was placed in the study district. Having completed most of my education in the country, it was not that difficult for me to understand our country’s health system.

We visited more than 1000 families to get data on NCD care at the rural level, health seeking behaviors of NCD patients and their out pocket expenditures for NCD care.

The theoretical explanations from classrooms started fitting in its notches when I got exposed to the field during the early days of the project. I got the hang of the project fairly quickly and began preparing for the baseline survey in the year of 2013.

We visited more than 1000 families to get data on NCD care at the rural level, health seeking behaviors of NCD patients and their out pocket expenditures for NCD care. We also visited primary health centers and private pharmacies in the area to collect information on medicine availability.

To read more about Dr Praveenkumar Aivalli blog Click here

Erlyn Macarayan – What it is to be an Emerging Voice?

by iphindia | Mar 11, 2016 | Latest Updates

Erlyn Macarayan, an Emerging Voice of 2014 shares her reasons as to why you should apply for Emerging Voices for Global Health 2016! Apply now! Last date for application: March 20th 2016

Emerging Voices for Global Health (EV4GH) is an innovative multi-partner blended training program for young, promising and emerging health policy & systems researchers, decision makers and other health system professionals with an interest in becoming influential global health voices and/or local change makers. See http://www.ev4gh.net for details.

See http://www.ev4gh.net for details.

In 2016, continuing with the tradition of partnering with significant health systems research symposium, we have a new edition of EV4GH in close association and partnership with the 4th Global Symposium on health systems research, organised by Health Systems Global. See http://healthsystemsresearch.org/hsr2… for details.

See http://healthsystemsresearch.org/hsr2… for details.

The symposium will take place from 14-18 November, 2016 at Vancouver, Canada.

Sheila John from Sankara Nethralaya, Tamil Nadu, shares his experience at the e-learning workshop, 2015

by iphindia | Mar 3, 2016 | Latest Updates

Sheila John from Sankara Nethralaya, Tamil Nadu,shares his experience at the e-learning workshop, “Get Started, Keep Moving” hosted by Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru & Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium. The workshop acquainted participants with various distance/blended formats.

I am a consultant ophthalmologist and Head of Telemedicine, Multimedia and E-‐Learning and working in Sankara Nethralaya a pioneer eye care Institution located in Chennai, TamilNadu, India. I have contributed to the content development in Multimedia and E-‐Learning departments

Short video on team building session with Dr.Roopa Devadasan

by iphindia | Mar 3, 2016 | Latest Updates, post_slider

Dr.Roopa Devadasan , took a session on team building for visiting MPH students from Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Public Health. The session was also attended by IPH staff members.