Dr Hari Singh Addresses Public Health through the Lens of Equity, Technology, and Global Change Control

Despite the availability of modern treatments, many conditions like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer are continuously increasing in our country. Conditions like tuberculosis and anaemia are persisting. Therefore, just treating patients isn’t enough; to prevent diseases and injuries, we have to invest more in Public Health infrastructure. We have to look at containing the situation before it implodes, as well as reducing our dependence on hospitals to reduce the patient load.

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Public health in this context will also have to look at improving public awareness about gender specific issues such as anaemia, which is prevalent in more than half of women and teenage girls in India. Such conditions not only impact health, but also make them prone to diseases and retards their productivity and energy. Even children, almost a third of our children are stunted, and shockingly, these numbers are higher than in most sub-Saharan African countries. Add to this the problem that girls as young as 15-18 years are forced into motherhood, further exacerbating the issue of general health and nutrient deficiencies. So, our concern isn’t just about diagnosing, it’s about finding a sizable solution that will help promote a healthier population in general.

Public health in rural regions, through their Anganwadi setups, is assisting women in getting registered for medical check-ups, counselling, and antenatal care when pregnant. They are encouraged to visit the doctors and seek professional advice, and go for delivery in a hospital.

Such programs are a cornerstone in turning public health into a people-first policy where the people are educated and trained to identify the next steps in promoting their health. It is therefore important that with a population as vast as ours, we ensure more grassroots-level programs are run to guide families, support communities and work towards bringing a significant behavioural shift towards general health.

Anganwadi program is just one such example, with Ayushman Bharat and other policies also in place, our foundation is well prepared to take on some more ingenious ideas to bolster public health through timely education, registration and diagnosis. This starts with research on where the health problem is concentrated, why it’s happening and what actions are needed to prevent it. Public health researchers work with huge volumes of data, using tools like SPSS, STATA, and R to analyse data and make sense of complex patterns. These insights help shape policies, guide programs and help design smart solutions.

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Technology is the answer when it comes to public health reaching out to the masses in a short time. Mothers in rural areas are notified about dates for immunising their children. Similar ways are adapted to remind TB patients about their compliance with medicine doses and pending check-ups.

Public health also supports precision medicine by undertaking large community-based surveys. Use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to address existing health challenges is another upcoming speciality of public health. Public health can be seen as a multidisciplinary field that involves epidemiology, biostatistics, project management, health systems and policy, health communication, health economics, research, data analytics and application of technology.

School of Public Health at SRMIST, Chennai; Indian Institute of Health Management Research at Jaipur, Delhi and Bangalore; Indian Institute of Public Health at Gandhinagar, Hyderabad; Sree Chitra Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram; and Prasanna School of Public Health at MAHE are some of world class public health institutions in India. Some of the courses available in these institutions at master's level are: Master of Public Health (MPH), MPH- Applied Health Research, MSc- Biostatistics and Epidemiology, MSc- Health Data Science. SRM is unique in offering public health at under graduation level- BSc- MPH (integrated) program.

For students who want to work in the health domain, who want to design and manage health projects, who want to learn research, who enjoy working on data and statistical software, and who want to learn the use of technology to address health problems, ‘Public Health’ offers an exciting career option.

National and international NGOs, corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, clinical research companies, IT companies working in the health domain, biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies, and health departments of government are potential employers of public health professionals.

Disclaimer: The article has been published as part of the marketing initiative between Careers360 and SRMIST Chennai.