TGI Health Accelerator joined hands with UNICEF India to launch an Innovation challenge to identify “disruptive solutions for psycho-social support to health workers”, The aim of this challenge is to leverage India’s vibrant start up ecosystem to source potential solutions to support healthcare workers that can be accelerated and scaled within health care delivery systems in India and other Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC’s).

We received over 50 extremely promising applications out of which 12 innovations were shortlisted and are going to present their pitches to our jury today for the innovation Challenge

Meet Our Jury

Urvashi Prasad, Director, Development Monitoring & Evaluation Office (DMEO), Niti Aayog, Delhi

Urvashi has extensive experience in health, nutrition, sanitation, gender and public policy. She currently working as a Director in the Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office, NITI Aayog. Urvashi has been a part of the core team supporting the work of Government of India's Empowered Group 1 for managing the Covid-19 Pandemic in the country. She is a member of the task force for overseeing the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in India and co-authored India’s first Voluntary National Review presented at the United Nation’s High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in 2017. Urvashi has over 100 publications in leading national and international newspapers, journals and digital platforms to her credit. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network and an alumnus of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community.

Dr Vivek Virendra Singh, Health Specialist, UNICEF, India Country Office

Vivek Singh, MBBS, MPH is a Public Health Specialist at UNICEF, India Country Office Coordinating Health Systems, Policy, and Program interventions for Child Health at UNICEF India Country Office. He received his MBBS from the Government Medical College Nagpur, and MPH from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He has over 20 years of global public health experience in Public Health Program Planning, Implementation and Evaluation. His expertise covers teaching and training on applied epidemiology, public health surveillance and public health program management; and policy advice to state governments on disease control and maternal & child health program planning; implementation and evaluation.

Dr Vijay Anand Ismavel, Rural Medical Expert and Pediatric Surgeon, Makunda Hospital, Assam

Dr. Vijay Anand Ismavel is a pediatric surgeon and health innovation expert based at Makunda Christian Leprosy & General Hospital in Assam. The hospital is known for its "Makunda Model" which ensures high quality affordable healthcare focused on the poor on a sustainable basis. He is actively engaged in the health innovation ecosystem and serves as a mentor to health Innovation hubs at IIT Chennai and Guwahati.

Shabari Bhattacharyya, Program Manager, Parivathan, Volunteer, Project Step One

Shabari Bhattacharyya is the Program Manager, Counsellor, Trainer and Supervisor at Parivarthan. She trained in Counselling from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA and graduate in Economics and Government from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She leads the mental health programme of Project Stepone a volunteer network of professionals supporting COVID-19 response across 16 India states and has developed a programme of psychosocial support to COVID affected and for health workers.

Coming Soon: The Awards Ceremony for the UNICEF & the George Institute's 'Innovation Challenge to provide psychosocial support for health workers'

With the final presentations over, we are looking forward to the awards ceremony in the next three weeks. This would be when the UNICEF Innovation Challenge will help to highlight impactful solutions to support the psychosocial needs of our frontline healthcare workers. Stay tuned!

A new global study by The George Institute shows that people with asthma have the same risk of dying from from COVID-19, and of serious complications like hospitalisation, intensive care or use of a ventilator as people without asthma. The findings published in the European Respiratory Journal also showed that people with asthma have slightly lower risk of infection from the virus than those without asthma. The authors propose several possible explanations, one of which includes the potential benefit of inhaled steroids commonly used in asthma treatment.  

Asthma affects over 300 million people globally and almost one in ten Australians have asthma - one of the highest prevalence rates in the world.  As COVID-19 continues to spread across the world and many countries lift lockdowns, a comprehensive understanding of COVID-19 risk among people with asthma is crucial.

The study reviewed evidence from 51 studies from Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and America and includes preliminary data from delta as well as other COVID-19 variants. The findings clarify previous mixed reports on whether people with asthma are at a higher risk of complications or poorer clinical outcomes from COVID-19. Lead author Dr Anthony Sunjaya said the study aimed to provide the most current, high-quality evidence in follow-up to research conducted by The George Institute at the start of the pandemic before variants were a concern.

“The fast evolution of the COVID-19 virus and the emergence of variants globally, still warrants caution for people with asthma,” he said.

“Further and ongoing analysis will be essential to understand the full impacts of the delta variant and other emerging variants in people with and without asthma.”

The new data also showed a 17 percent reduced risk of acquiring COVID-19 among asthma sufferers, reinforcing the findings from the earlier study. The study also complements preliminary evidence that shows the effect of the commonly used asthma treatment, inhaled corticosteroid, could reduce these patients' risk of needing urgent medical care and reduce their recovery time from COVID-19.

Professor Christine Jenkins, Head of the Respiratory Program at The George Institute, said it is important for those prescribed regular asthma treatment to continue adhering to it.

“Now is not the time for complacency - treatment is not only essential to manage asthma but may, very fortunately, also reduce the risk of getting COVID-19 and being seriously unwell with it,  especially during the delta outbreak in Australia,” she said. “The unknowns of emerging variants mean people need to keep on top of their asthma by checking in with their health professional and getting vaccinated. This is especially true for younger people who may be less likely to adhere to their asthma treatment or keep it up-to-date.”  

The researchers also found a significant difference in outcomes from COVID-19 between America, Europe and Asia for which there may be several possible explanations such as the inclusion of studies from Asian countries with higher testing regimens, genetic differences in populations’ response to COVID-19 and differences in the type of asthma (e.g. non-allergic and allergic) common to different countries.

This research is part of a ‘living’ systematic review of evidence that is routinely updated in response to the rapidly changing COVID-19 landscape to accurately inform public health protocols and messaging.

“There remains a need for higher quality community studies as well as regular risk assessments and review of new data throughout the pandemic for asthma and other major comorbidities,” said Dr Sunjaya.  

Read more about the early study here.