ICTPH Global Internship Programme Journal 2010

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the 2nd edition of the Global Internship Program (GIP) Journal 2010.

IKP Centre for Technologies in Public Health (ICTPH) is a Section-25, not-for-profit Company; registered under the Companies Act, 1956. ICTPH aims to improve the health of poor populations by focusing on designing, developing and delivering innovative solutions in healthcare concerning India and the developing world. This is achieved through an inclusive process that scientifically integrates knowledge of factors influencing health and diseases in India, regular evaluation and impact assessment of existing health systems and integration of appropriate technology for optimal health care delivery. ICTPH aims to research provisioning enhanced accessibility to healthcare services for rural populations through a three pronged focus on Epidemiology, Human Capacity and Healthcare Solutions.

At ICTPH, we believe strongly in a focus on global public health which informs our understanding of health systems in rural India. Partnerships with colleges and universities abroad and within India help us in generating research and findings that progress our organization towards its objective of providing comprehensive care to rural populations. Towards this endeavour, ICTPH invites outstanding interns from around the world to its Global Internship Program.

This year, ICTPH was pleased to host students from the following institutions: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Cornell Institute of Public Affairs (CIPA), Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania.

Interns were matched with mentors as well as with research projects that included a variety of activities such as conducting literature reviews, visiting field sites and partner organizations, working closely with health professionals and field staff, collecting survey and observational data and reporting on research that contributed to the growing knowledge base at ICTPH.

The GIP Journal 2010 brings you 9 articles which outline the various projects that were the result of a cohesive collaboration between interns and the ICTPH Team. Prateek Jain evaluates the useful benefits as well as challenges of developing a unique Electronic Health Record (EHR) System for the organization by identifying gaps in user adoption, evaluating the technology for ease of use and making suggestions on improving the current model. Urmi Cholera and Jessica Wolff examine the use of EHR systems in public health by surveying the literature in the field and making critical suggestions for integrating a public health component and a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) to the existing EHR system.

Xue Wang looks at hypertension management in rural India and develops nursing protocols for local use. Ryan Cook and Wei Chang present protocols for managing hypertension and diabetes to be adopted by community health workers in the field, specifically the SughaVazhvu Guides. Peter Groce surveys the research on diabetes within the Indian context and provides initial protocols and nursing guidelines for rural diabetic care. Kristen van der Veen develops a useful physical examination protocol for nurses in the local area and provides several indigenized resources in the process.

Diego Rios Zertuche proposes an organizational plan for a rural health network system including specifics on training, evaluation and implementation of systems for supply chain management and health technology. Kelly Clonts outlines a proposal for utilizing Social Network Analysis (SNA) in examining the flow of health and financial information within rural households. Finally, Neal Gupta presents his survey study on household level management of diarrheal illness within rural Tamil Nadu.

I take this opportunity to invite you to read and respond to the articles in our GIP Journal 2010. Additionally, I would like to thank all of our GIP interns as well as their mentors at ICTPH for their hard work, sincerity and dedication. A special note of appreciation must be mentioned here for Zeena Johar (President, ICTPH), Erin Jeremiah (Executive Assistant, ICTPH) and Jaganatha Jayachandran (Manager, SughaVazhvu) for their continuous guidance, support and coordination of all resources and logistics that ensured a successful GIP 2010.

Sincerely,

Subhalakshmi Ganguly

Director, ICTPH Global Internship Programme
AVP – Communication and Strategy Development
subhalakshmi.ganguly@ictph.org.in