International
Stanford-International Health and Society Initiative: Maternal-Child Health Well-Being
A Mentorship Program for Interdisciplinary Scholarship at Stanford University
Societal expectations for safe birthing and family desires for an optimal well being spanning from newborn to adolescence are universal and surpass the usual societal barriers of religion, politics, economics, cultural and social values. Our health and society program seeks to improve the unacceptably high maternal and childhood morbidity and mortality rates in developing communities, regions and nations by devising innovative strategies to bridge existing social and access barriers in the micro- and macro- health environment. Our specific strategies include, but not limited, to leadership training, interdisciplinary scholarship and mentorship by experts from Stanford University and prospective partners.
STANFORD-INDIA: HEALTH, EMPOWERMENT, ADVOCACY, LEADERSHIP AND SELF (HEALS).
Regardless of whether health healthcare is a right or a privilege,
the underpinning for societal well being relies on unfettered access
to accurate and reliable information/knowledge as a personal right.
Access to health related knowledge is dependent on people and process.
In South Asia, barriers include acculturation of the informant (or,
educator) and the bureaucratic corruption of the process. A pressing
vulnerability of young women seeking reproductive health care has been
identified throughout the societal spectrum in South Asia. To surpass
these impediments, we will facilitate the transformation of providers to “leaders
of change” and to advocate
for self-motivated societal-empowerment for a positive healthcare
environment. Our program represents an innovative initiative based
on the covenants for maternal, neonatal, infant and child well being
that self-empowerment is key to beneficial health outcome in any
society. Our
scholar program’ societal message, initially, for the Indian subcontinent,
is based on: "ASK, its your right" or its local Hindustani version: "Aap
ka Haq: sawaal ka sahhi jawab”. It relies on the health and societal
principle: E = S(T+M) where,
empowered (E) healthcare decision making equals the product
of societal facilitation (S) mediated transference (T) of empowerment
(by healthcare providers) and media (M) communication-based education.
Through existing and new partnerships we will facilitate the implementation
of known evidence-based interventions and promote leadership skills,
interdisciplinary scholarship and mentorship by experts from Stanford
University and the subcontinent. In an effort to foster interdisciplinary
international research and collaboration at Stanford University with
its partners in USA and South Asia, we will identify scholars to be co-mentored
by Stanford and US faculty in health and societal aspects of maternal
and child health. We address reproductive maternal and child health that
spans health and societal disciplines from a medical, nursing, public
health, societal and community perspective. Innovative strategies developed
by individual communities offer unique opportunities for scholarship,
evidence-based inquiry, and collaborative interdisciplinary mentorship.
The potential for participating in the defining of future health and
societal leadership that understands the “language of women” has
the potential to have sustaining and beneficial impact on
health and well-being of women and their children.
A
Case Report: Urgent imperative for our approach was recently
provided by the recent experience of an incoming Stanford
graduate student, Malika Malhotra (malikam@stanford.edu). During the past
year she participated in UNDP’s program on the prevention of trafficking and HIV/AIDS (TAHA)
in Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Siliguri (West Bengal). She soon realized
that though sex-workers were recipients of several governmental and non-governmental
initiatives, the criminalized nature and the moral confines of their work
left the women and their children inaccessible to caring educators and providers.
Most sex workers attested to abuse from healthcare providers, were unlikely
to seek antenatal care or routine care health care services for their children.
Through UNDP’s self-photodocumentation project “Me by Me”,
the sex workers participated in a self expression of their lives. Malhotra
identified that this cohort of street sex workers confessed multiple still-births,
abuse and limited understanding of personal reproductive health care. She
intends to promote and develop access of street-based sex workers to peer
educational initiatives and access to respectful healthcare.
A
mother relates her story
Pilot innovative and interweaving projects over the next two years include:
- Community Radio Network of India: Health and societal content development for diverse rural and urban slum communities to address maternal, neonatal, infant and child health in collaboration with Media Information Communication Center of India (MICCI)
- Health and Societal Leadership Initiative and Its Impact on Maternal and Child Health Well Being in collaboration with Indian Association of Neonatal Nurses and National Neonatology Forum of India.
- Augmentation of Kangaroo Mother Care with a portable self-sustaining warming device to facilitate the national goals to reduce infant mortality in rural and urban slum India in collboration with Rahul A. Panicker et al (Stanford University) and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (WHO Perinatal Collaborating Center).
Vinod K. Bhutani, MD
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Professor of Pediatrics (Neonatology)
Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Department
of Pediatrics
Stanford University School of Medicine
CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS
Nihar Nayak, PhD
Assistant Professor, Director of Translational Research
Division of Maternal and Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Jeffrey S. Gould, MD
Robert L. Hess Professor in Pediatrics
Director of Perinatal Epidemiology and Health Outcomes Research
Unit, Department of Pediatrics
Stanford University School of Medicine
ADVISOR
David K. Stevenson, MD
Harold K. Faber Professor of Pediatrics
Vice Dean and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Director, Charles B. and Ann L. Johnson, Center for Pregnancy
and Newborn Services
Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine.
STANFORD HEALS PROJECT CO-INVESTIGATORS
Shalini Dev Bhutani, PhD
Interim Director, Bechtel International Center
Stanford University
Usha Chitkara, MD
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Ashok Deorari, MD
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics,
WHO Collaborating Center for Training and Research in Newborn Care,
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS),
Maurice Druzin, MD
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Chief of Perinatology, Charles B. and Ann L.
Johnson, Center for Pregnancy and Newborn Services
Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr. Susan Gennaro, RN, DSN, FAAN
Florence & William Downs Professor in Nursing Research
Editor, Journal of Nursing Scholarship
New York University, College of Nursing
Dr. Akhil Gupta, PhD
Professor of Anthropology
University of California Los Angeles
Rohit Handa
Common Cause (NGO dedicated to public causes promotes individual
rights and access to information to redress grievances in a collective manner
at an all India level), New Delhi, India
Neelam Kler, MD
President-Elect, National Neonatology Forum of India (NGO of neonatologists
of India who have partnered with the Government of India for community-based
programs.
(Dr. Kler is the Chief of Neonatology, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New
Delhi, India)
Anjini Kochar, PhD
Senior Research Scholar and India Program Coordinator,
Stanford Center for International Development,
and co-Director, South Asia Studies, Stanford University
Linda Hess, PhD
Lecturer of Religious Life
co-Director, South Asia Studies, Stanford University
Rahul Alex Panicker, PhD
Graduate Student. David Packard Electrical Engineering, Stanford
University His advisor, Professor James Patell, Stanford
Institute of Design, and the Graduate School of Business) has been requested
to participate in this endeavor.
Vinod K. Paul, MD, PhD
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics,
WHO Collaborating Center for Training and Research in Newborn Care,
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS),
John Pearson
Director, Bechtel International Center
Stanford University
Nandini Sahai
Executive Director
Media Information Communication Center of India (MICCI)
Manju Vats, PhD
Indian Association of Neonatal Nurses
Principal, College of Nursing
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)
Sumner Yaffe, MD
Consulting Professor (Clinical Perinatal Pharmacologist)
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University
Other co-Investigators and Partners: Prospective Faculty to
be invited (as indicated in the proposal) including Departments Anthropology,
Culture and Social Anthropology (CASA), Center for Comparative Studies in Race
and Ethnicity (CCSRE) and Engineering Faculty (to be identified).
Partners in India: Department of Pediatrics, WHO Collaborating
Center for Training and Research in Newborn Care All India Institute of Medical
Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi; National Neonatology Forum (NNF), Indian Association
of Neonatal Nursing (IAAN), Media Information Communication Center of India
(MICCI) and Common Cause,
