Dr Pallab Maulik: transforming India's social landscape
Dr Pallab Maulik is the Deputy Director and Head of Research and Development at the The George Institute for Global Health, India.
Can you briefly describe the mission of The George Institute in India?
The George Institute for Global Health believes that changing healthcare is fundamental to transforming the social landscape of the country and its population. In India, we have been working to improve the health of people nationwide by undertaking research that can help in reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases that leads to premature death and disability.
What is the strategy used to conduct research in India?
Our strategy in India is to undertake innovative and ground breaking research that is concentrated around three main themes:
- Reducing the impact of the major causes of premature death and disability;
- Developing innovative strategies for healthcare delivery; and
- Identifying new treatments for serious health conditions.
We undertake research projects having both “discovery” and “implementation” components. Implementation components that feed the lessons learned from these into policy making through advocacy and communications.
What are the key principles guiding the research of The George Institute in India?
The main principles while determining the themes are the following:
- Research should have a specific translational property that can inform health outcomes for large populations, health services and policy.
- Development of research along two broad principles:
a) “Implementation research”, to target health services research with the aim to develop research that can be implemented within existing health systems; and
b) “Discovery research”, which will focus on research that identifies risk factors for diseases, new treatment models, and plots the burden of different diseases. - Research that will have a specific focus on disadvantaged populations.
- Partnerships will be sought with both national and international researchers and organisations in the areas through collaborative research.
Wherever possible, our researchers aim to involve global expertise available within The George Institute’s global offices, while including as many global offices in the conduct of research as possible.
What are the key areas of research?
We use the life-cycle approach in determining the key areas of research as we believe there is a continuum of diseases and risk factors from childhood to old age.
The key areas of research are:
- Development and use of innovative technology
- Develop strategies with a focus on workforce re-engineering
- Use of big data analytics
- Conduct research to understand pathways to care and identify methods to improve the same
- Conduct clinical trials with the highest level of scientific rigour
Originally published in The George Institute for Global Health India 2014-15 Annual Report
