Getting the essentials of research cycle right

Getting the essentials of research cycle right

NIHR-GHRC for Non-communicable Diseases and Environmental Change awarded GHR Cohort Academic Development Award NIHR-GHR-CADA 2022-2023

The National Institute for Health & Care Research-Global Health Research Centre for Non-Communicable Diseases and Environment Change (NIHR-GHRC (NCD&EC)) secured the Cohort Academic Development award (CADA) 2022-2023. This award will help train young researchers from the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh, The George Institute for Global Health in India, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education & Research in India, and Brawijaya University in Indonesia.  It aims to build research capacity of early career researchers and research managers and is designed  and make them better at doing research, managing research projects, and communicating their findings.

Towards this end, a special training program was created after a training needs assessment among academic groups. Senior researchers and research managers from the Centre are teaching this program.  The training includes four vital domains of research namely, Qualitative Research Methods, Research Data Management, Scientific Communication and Research Management

The training program is scheduled to take place between July 2023 to December 2023. It involves live webinars where participants can interact and learn together. There will also be chances for self-paced learning using an online platform. Additionally, there will be a six-day, in-person workshop in Malang, Indonesia. This workshop will allow early career researchers and research managers to meet in person, connect with each other, and share cross-country experiences.

Event

Systems for Health Equity: What role can social participation play?

Systems for Health Equity

In 2022, the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research introduced the concept of Systems for Health in an eponymous report at the Health Systems Global Symposium, seeking to draw global attention to three key systems that together can intervene synergistically to improve health -  health care systems and universal health coverage, health security and resilience against shocks; and multi-sectoral action to strengthen policies in sectors outside of health care to address the structural, social, cultural and commercial determinants of health. A running thread across all these is equity – defined as the absence of unfair and avoidable differences among groups of people defined socially, economically, demographically, geographically or by other dimensions of inequality. An emphasis on equity introduces procedural and methodological imperatives to involve communities and collectives as key agents of change within systems for health.  

This discussion convened by The George Institute will comprise thought leaders in the systems for health, health equity and social participation for health space to share their reflections on opportunities and threats to a system for health equity agenda.  

Speakers

  • Justin Koonin

    Justin is a co-chair of the Steering Committee of UHC2030, the international multistakeholder partnership for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and is a member of multiple World Health Organization (WHO) expert panels. At a national level in Australia, Justin is president of the AIDS Council of New South Wales (ACON). He is Honorary Professorial Fellow at The George Institute and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of New South Wales, as well as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Justin's training is in the field of pure mathematics, and he currently works as an investment analyst. 

    Justin Koonin
  • David Peiris

    David is the Chief Scientist for The George Institute for Global Health and Director of the Global Primary Health Care Program (Better Care). He is a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, UNSW Sydney and works clinically as a GP in Sydney. 

    David joined The George Institute in 2006 and is passionate about strengthening primary health care worldwide. He is focussed on overcoming the challenges of delivering affordable, high-quality health services and programs to communities across the globe. He is a former Australian Harkness Fellow in Healthcare policy, based at the Harvard School of Public Health and was the elected co-chair of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases committee for hypertension control from 2012 to 2015. He sits on several government, non-government, and research advisory committees. He is a commissioner on two Lancet commissions focussed on evidence-based implementation in global health and pandemic preparedness. 

  • Kent Buse

    Kent is a political economist with research interests in health policy analysis and the evidence to policy pathway. Kent joined the Institute in 2020 to lead the Healthier Societies program. The program aims to support governments, markets, and communities to establish and deliver favourable conditions to enable the health and wellbeing of people, planet, and economies – and fix systems. Kent has published widely on global health governance and architecture, health policy, planning and financing, population-level approaches to control of NCDs, HIV and sexual and reproductive health, and human rights, as well as on equity, inclusion, and accountability. He authored the leading graduate textbook ‘Making Health Policy’. He served as Chief of Policy, Strategy and Research at UNAIDS for over ten years and is the co-founder and co-director of Global Health 50/50, the world’s leading authority on gender in global health. Kent also serves on the Policy Committee of the World Obesity Federation and WHO’s informal expert committee on the Commercial Determinants of Health. 

    Kent Buse
  • Rohina Joshi

    Scientia Associate Prof Rohina Joshi is the Global Health Research Lead at the School of Population Health, UNSW, Sydney and a Senior Researcher at The George Institute, India. Rohina teaches global health and is a health systems researcher with an aim to strengthen health information systems and health workforce. She trained in Medicine and Public Health from India and completed her PhD and MBA in Australia. Rohina serves as the CDC Foundation’s Asia Pacific lead for the Data for Health Initiative and the UNSW lead for the Asia Pacific Observatory for Health Systems. She serves on several advisory boards including the WHO’s Community Health Worker training program and Mortality in India through Verbal Autopsy.  

    Dr Rohina Joshi
  • AR Nanda

    Mr. A R Nanda is former Executive Director of Population Foundation of India and was the ED when the Secretariat of the Advisory Group on Community Action (AGCA) was set up at PFI. He is a member of the AGCA. He has held many important positions in the Government including Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India. Mr Nanda has been a member/trustee of several organizations including the Indian Association for Study of Population and the National Commission on Population. He has been an honorary fellow at the Indian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.  Mr Nanda was the board chair at CHETNA for 15 years, and also at Freedom from Hunger India and Coalition for Food and Nutrition Security. He has served as an advisor on the International Advisory Committee for Population Programme of the David & Lucile Packard Foundation and the WHO Scientific and Technical Advisory Group of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research. 

    AR Nanda (IAS Retd, Ex-NRHM) 
  • Helena Legido-Quigley

    Helena Legido-Quigley is the newly appointed Chair in Health Systems Science at The George Institute for Global Health, UK, and the School of Public Health, Imperial College London. In this role, she leads transformative initiatives across policy, research, economics, and implementation science. Leveraging The George Institute's global presence in Australia, China, India, and the UK, she primarily operates from London. 

    Prior to joining The George Institute, Professor Legido-Quigley served as an Associate Professor in Health Systems at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore. She is an Associate Fellow of Chatham House, a member of the World Economic Forum Council, and the editor-in-chief of Elsevier's Journal of Migration and Health. Her active involvement in Women in Global Health, Spain, reflects her commitment to reshaping global health and mentoring the next generation of researchers. Her research spans health services, health security, and multi-sectoral health actions, all with a strong focus on equity.  

    Helena Legido-Quigley
  • Facilitator: Devaki Nambiar

    Devaki Nambiar is Program Director, Healthier Societies Strategy at the George Institute for Global Health India with appointments at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India, the University of New South Wales, Australia, and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, USA. She is a Health Policy and Systems Researcher (HPSRer) with over two decades of experience working in India and other Low- and Middle-Income Countries on decision-maker demand-driven research, postgraduate teaching in HPSR, as well as technical assistance with an emphasis on community action for health, social exclusion, health equity and health for all. She is a former Fulbright, Fogarty, and NIH scholar, and Fellow of the Wellcome Trust/Department of Biotechnology India Alliance. She advises the WHO on health inequality monitoring, national programme re-orientation, and guideline development to leave no one behind. She serves on the Lancet-Chatham House Commission on Improving Population Health post COVID-19, the Lancet Commission on Sustainable Healthcare, and advises Lancet Commissions on Women and Cancer as well as on Reimagining India's Health System. She is a member of the People's Health Movement and the Medico Friends Circle. She also serves on the Board of Health Systems Global and the Research Advisory Board of the Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru, India.  

Happy healthy heart

Top tips to keep your heart happy and healthy

Show your heart some love today with these handy tips to keep your heart happy and healthy with A/Professor Clare Arnott, Head of the Cardiovascular Program and Director of the Global Better Treatments Program at The George Institute for Global Health.

The best way to keep your heart healthy is to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

1. Give up smoking

If you are a smoker the best thing you can do for your heart is to quit. Smoking affects every part of your body, including your heart. It reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood and damages blood vessel walls. Smoking also increases your risk of getting a heart attack, you are at least twice as likely to have a heart attack if you smoke.

2. Manage your weight

Maintain a healthy weight with a balanced diet filled with plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, combined with regular physical activity. Limit your intake of saturated fats, and foods high in sugar.

3. Get active

Regular physical activity reduces your risk of developing heart disease. It also helps control other heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Any physical activity is better than none but aim to be active on most days of the week. Walking is a great way to start being more active, join a walking group at work or try to get 10,000 steps in a day. Learn more about getting active here.

4. Eat healthily

Healthy eating is a key component of maintaining a healthy heart. Heart healthy eating patterns rely on a combination of nutrient-rich foods. This style of eating is low in saturated and trans fats, salt and added sugar. It is also rich in whole grains, fibre, antioxidants and unsaturated fats. Avoid heavily processed foods. Learn more about heart healthy eating patterns here.

5. Manage stress  

Everyone feels stress in different ways and how much stress you experience may affect behaviours and factors that increase heart disease risk: high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, smoking, drinking, physical inactivity and overeating. To combat this risk have a few key tools and strategies that you can use on a day-to-day basis to ensure that you can reduce stress such as meditation, yoga and having a regular sleep schedule. Learn more about stress management here.

6. Have a regular heart health check

It is important that we all routinely monitor our heart health risk factors. Make sure you discuss these risks with your general practitioner and make a plan with them to monitor your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Advocate for your friends and family, encourage them to have a heart health check too.

 

Heart and diabetes Australian health system

Submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Diabetes

The George Institute for Global Health is pleased to provide a submission to the House of Representatives Inquiry into Diabetes.

The diabetes epidemic places a significant burden on the Australian health system and economy, with the rate of diabetes increasing almost 220% over the last two decades. To address this, we are calling on the Australian Government to implement 5 key measures:  

  1. Commit to fully resourcing and implementing prevention policy, including: 
  • Funding the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021-2030 and National Obesity Strategy 2022-2032.
  • Setting a timeframe and strategic plan for incorporating prevention into the Australian Centre for Disease Control.
  1. Mandate industry reformulation of salt, sugar, and saturated fats to improve the nutritional value of packaged foods.  
  • Revise the Terms of Reference for the Healthy Food Partnership to deliver mandatory food reformulation targets. 
  • Legislate a nationwide ban on industrial trans-fats in food.  
  1. Introduce a levy on manufacturers of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs).  
  • Implement a levy to increase retail prices of SSBs by 20 per cent.  
  • Earmark revenue to support preventive health policies.   
  1. Improve access to nutritional information for consumers.  
  • Mandate and improve the voluntary Health Star rating system to apply to all packaged food.  
  • Introduce added-sugar labelling in the nutrition information panels on packaged food and drinks.  
  1. Introduce regulations to restrict unhealthy food marketing to children. 
  • Ensure television, radio and cinema are free from unhealthy food marketing from 6.00am to 9.30pm.  
  • Prevent children from being exposed to the marketing of unhealthy foods. 

To read our full submission, please click here