IGHI Student Challenges finalist at global healthcare conference

A finalist from the Student Challenges competition presented their research project at the Annual Global Health Conference 2012 in Singapore

A research project that made the final round in Imperial’s first ever global health innovation student competition was presented at the Annual Global Health Conference 2012 in Singapore this month. The Institute of Global Health Innovation held its first Student Challenge competition earlier this year in February. Five finalists presented projects aiming to demonstrate how their research could contribute to better health for all. 

 The Institute plays a leading role for finding technological solutions to address contemporary global health challenges. To this end, it encourages and supports novel student initiatives. Medical students Bhavesh Patel, Heather Wong, Tomilola Adesanya, Olayinka Gbolahan, Obadah Ghannam (and co-author Rishi Verma) were judged finalists for their team submission.  The organisers of the Annual Global Healthcare Conference 2012 invited them to present their findings at the Conference on the 27^th and 28^th of August.

The theme of the conference is more accessible and more equitable healthcare for all sections of society and between healthcare providers. Bhavesh Patel represented his team and Imperial College and presented their findings and implications at the technical sessions. Their project aimed to develop a method to highlight the advantages of patient feedback of their experiences, to resource-constrained, paternalistic healthcare providers. Designing patient surveys and deploying them at public and private hospitals in Nigeria over a two week period, the team were motivated by the WHO concept of the value of responsiveness and patient-centredness as a key objective in evaluating healthcare quality in developing countries. They now hope to create a user-friendly tool that healthcare managers can use to develop quality improvement approaches.

Bhavesh said “Our objectives at this forum are to disseminate our findings to the global health sector, for our research to be scrutinised and peer reviewed, talk to leading minds and be critiqued. The key message to policy makers is that a patient-centred approach to quality improvement is not a luxury reserved for developed nations alone, and that even in resource-constrained conditions, the patient’s perspective can make low cost but high impact changes to their healthcare provision. We hope to receive advice about possible avenues of work too.

 “We really appreciated the Student Challenges competition experience and the opportunity it has given us to present our research to a wider audience. It reflects Imperial’s standing as leading research hub”

Bhavesh added. “The institute encourages students to think about developing their work beyond just a piece of research, to bring about a positive change in the field of global health.”

 The Student Challenge competition is open to any Imperial College BSc/MSc/MEng/MBA/MPH/MRes projects addressing any aspect of global health innovation.