Annual Report 19-20 Inner Pages
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ANNUAL REPORT 2019-2020 ANNUAL REPORT 2019 - 2020 CONTENTS MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR’s DESK 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 ABBREVIATIONS 5 RESEARCH AND ACTION 6 CHRONIC CONDITIONS AND PUBLIC POLICIES 6 Project DEEP - Deciphering an Epidemic of Epic Proportion 6 Project: Evaluation of the LifeFirst program 7 Project Anushthana - Implementation Research for taking Tobacco Control Policy Interventions to Scale in India (IRTCPI) 8 Safer Roads Bengaluru (SRB) 9 HEALTH EQUITY 14 Towards Health Equity and Transformative Action on Tribal Health (THETA) 14 Kyasanur Forest Disease (KFD) 18 HEALTH FINANCING AND UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE 20 Harmonising the six health financing schemes in Chhattisgarh: 20 HEALTH SERVICES 21 SPEAK (Setting Post Elimination Agenda for Kala Azar) 21 Assessment of Health System Preparedness for Rabies Prevention 25 Evaluation Of Midwife Training In Telangana (EMTT) 25 Strengthening primary care for NCDs in Kolar 26 ICMR Task force project on developing a community based model for NCD control in tribal populations (INCARE) 26 National Health Systems Resource Centre - Innovation Learning Centre (NHSRC-ILC) project 27 EDUCATION 28 SHORT COURSES 28 E- Learning course in Public Health Management 28 E-Learning course in Health Financing 28 E-Learning course in Scientific Writing and Reference Management 28 E-Learning course in Research Methods 29 Blended Workshop in Good Health Research Practices 29 PhD PROGRAM 30 INTERNSHIPS AT IPH 36 EMERGING VOICES 2020 37 PUBLIC AND POLICY ENGAGEMENT 38 TRIBAL HEALTH 38 PUBLIC ENGAGEMENTS 38 OTHER DEVELOPMENTS AND ACHIEVEMENTS 39 IPH KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE 39 TESTIMONIALS 39 PUBLICATIONS 39 ORGANIZATIONAL DETAILS 45 Human Resources 45 FINANCIAL DETAILS 46 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 47 ANNUAL REPORT 2019-2020 DIRECTOR’S REMARKS The last year has been yet another productive year in enhancing public health knowledge and outcomes through our research, education and public/policy engagement activities. I am humbled by the teamwork and dedication of our staff as well as the trust and support our partners extended to us. The year marked a major milestone in our journey. Our founder-Director, Dr. Narayanan Devadasan, facilitated a transition in leadership to a model of shared leadership through a deliberative process that he began several years ago. As a result, the Institute of Public Health (IPH) instituted a Management Committee which works closely with the Director in shaping the leadership and sharing managerial responsibilities for IPH. Furthering his leadership vision for IPH, he constantly invested in nurturing younger colleagues and the Management Committee at IPH, and made a planned exit from the IPH management in June 2019. He subsequently joined the IPH governing board and society. In July 2019, I took over from Dr. Devadasan as the Director and am honoured by the faith placed in me both by my colleagues as well as the IPH governing board. A trustful and carefully planned process ensured a smooth and seamless transition in leadership and this strengthens our resolve in the shared value of teamwork that we all embrace at IPH. On the research front, we produced 10 papers in reputed peer-reviewed journals and contributed several blogs and articles in popular media. IPH staff participated and presented their work in conferences and workshops within India and abroad. Our scientific outputs as well as processes in generating these have both improved with the various committees dedicated to enhancing the capacity and quality of work such as the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC), Research Advisory Board (RAB), and the Committee on Research Conduct (CRC). IPH has been recognized as a Scientific and Research Organization (SIRO) by the Ministry of Science and Technology (Government of India). Our engagements in the education domain continue in the form of our offering of short courses and workshops concerning research capacity (research methods and practice; scientific writing and publication) and specific niche areas (health financing, health management, realist evaluation) for early- and mid-career professionals. IPH has begun efforts to continue capacity-building in health policy and systems research (HPSR) through ongoing talks with partners to establish a one-of-its-kind education program in research methods. We significantly enhanced our doctoral training support: we are now hosting and supervising five doctoral students registered at universities within India and abroad. Carrying forward our intent to provide a platform to young public health enthusiasts we are glad to have 1 ANNUAL REPORT 2019-2020 been joined by 22 interns and two Fullbright Nehru fellows in the course of the year. IPH faculty members continue offering teaching engagements at reputed higher education institutions across India including IIHS (bengaluru), JIPMER (Pondicherry) and PGIMER (Chandigarh). We strive to remain a learning organization. Thanks to the knowledge management support group within IPH that we had over 40 seminars and other interesting activities including journal clubs and public health related film screenings. We got selected for the organizational capacity enhancement programme delivered by the Financial Management Service Foundation that helped us strengthen our internal systems and functioning in line with good practices/standards. Last year also saw new networks being built with initiation of MoUs and collaborations with National Academy of Sciences India (NASI), The University of Transdisciplinary Health Sciences and Technology (TDU), Social Anthropology of Rabies Epidemiology and Elimination (SAREE), and strengthening previous long term collaborations with our partner, Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp. Our efforts at translating our research into practice and system-level changes through knowledge products for improvements in tribal health, tobacco control, safer roads and various other topics of importance in public health have continued to produce good outputs. The start of this year with COVID19 pandemic and its unfolding devastating impacts on communities has brought the much-required attention to strengthening public health systems and their interface with other policies and systems. IPH has been contributing to COVID response by producing guidance, offering technical assistance to health and other departments in Karnataka, and raising awareness on various aspects of COVID19 through a dedicated webpage and contributions in media. With your support, we at IPH look forward with a renewed hope to contribute meaningfully in enhancing the health of people in India. Dr. Upendra Bhojani 2 ANNUAL REPORT 2019-2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IPH's work is organised across three domains: research and action, education and public/policy engagement. Under the Research and action domain, research projects continue to be organised across four clusters. The Chronic conditions and public policies cluster continues its research into public policies in relation to tobacco control and road safety, focusing on various aspects of tobacco control ranging from its political economy to implementation research on how these policies work. Two of the three DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance fellows at IPH, Upendra Bhojani and Pragati Hebbar anchor the tobacco control research. The cluster continues its focus on improving road safety compliance in Bengaluru through both research and widespread public engagement, and school health interventions. The Health services cluster continues its work at multiple sites in India. The work on supporting the health systems component in the post elimination phase of Kala Azar continues in four states - Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar, in coordination with state- level partner organisations. In Telangana, the cluster continues its evaluation and support to the midwifery training initiative with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). In Karnataka, researchers in the cluster have been working on strengthening care for diabetes and other non communicable diseases (NCDs) in primary health centres (PHCs) in Kolar. This year saw the expansion of the cluster’s work to also include tribal PHCs in Chamarajanagar district of Karnataka with the award of a research grant from the National Task Force of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Through the IPH field station in Chamarajanagar, the cluster supports various other health services activities in the district. The Health equity cluster continues its work on tribal health. This year, surveys in field sites in Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Kerala were completed and surveys in a second site in southern Karnataka are ongoing. Cluster members attended a national conference on tribal health organised by WHO (India) office and presented their work. The cluster's work on health system aspects of the Kyasanur Forest Disease in Karnataka and Kerala continues in close partnership with teams from ICMR and the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka. The Health financing and universal health coverage cluster worked with the state government of Chhattisgarh in integrating various health financing schemes in that state. The weekly IPH research seminars continue to provide a vibrant platform for academic exchange and discussion. This year, IPH conducted consultations in-house to draft a guideline for responsible conduct of research and provide clear internal guidance and oversight mechanisms for good quality research. 3 ANNUAL REPORT 2019-2020 In the Education domain, the team has continued