Choosing Health: An Opportunity for India

Centre for Global Health Research, St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto

5-6 January 2007

Taj Mahal Hotel, 1 Man Singh Road, New Delhi

Day I: 5 January 2007: Main sessions

9.00 - 10.00 am:                        Registration

10:00 - 11:15 am:                       Opening session:  key messages
Chair:   Sir George Alleyne and Dr. NK Ganguly

• Introductions : DCPP Lessons Learned: Sir George Alleyne

• Disease Control Priorities- lessons learned from 1990: Dean T. Jamison, Harvard University

• Key messages from Choosing Health: An Opportunity for India: Prabhat Jha, CGHR, SMH/Uof T

11:15- 11.30 am:                        Tea Break

11.30 am- 1:15 pm:                    Economic analyses and use of cost-effectiveness analyses (CEA)

Chair:   Dr. Satish C. Jha

• Key findings on CEA: Ramanan Laxminarayan, Resources for the Future

1:15 - 2:00 pm:               Lunch

2:00 - 4:00 pm:               Health priorities in India- first session

Chair:  Dr. Meenakshi Datta Ghosh

• Preliminary mortality results from the RGI-CGHR Mortality Study, by EAG and non-EAG states: DK Sikri, Registrar General of India and Prabhat Jha

• Can India halve 2.2 million child and maternal deaths? Rajesh Kumar, School of Public Health, PGIMER.

• Discussants on maternal mortality: Shailaja Chandra, National Population Stabilisation Fund; Amarjeet Singh, Govt of Gujarat;

• Discussants on child mortality: Sir George Alleyne (the PAHO experience); Lalit Kant, ICMR; 

• Achieving control of HIV, TB and malaria (and other infectious diseases)

• Discussants: DK Doke, Govt of Maharashtra; Jotna Sokhay, NACO; Jay Narain, SEARO.

4:00 - 4:15 pm:                           Tea Break

4:15 - 5:30 pm:               Health priorities in India- second session

• Control of chronic diseases, tobacco and risk factors:

• Discussants: Prabhat Jha, CGHR; Dr. Prabhakaran, AIIMS

6:30 - 8:30 pm:                           Reception with members of Advisory Committee/Others

 Day II: 6 January 2007

8.00 - 8.30 am:             Registration for late arrivals

8:30 - 11:00 am:                         Health systems: key challenges and solutions

Co-Chairs:  Mr. Rajiv Misra  

• Practical steps to improve systems (human resource issues, procurement, training including role of ASHAs, incentives, monitoring): P. Poornalingam; Retired IAS

• Discussants: Than Sein, SEARO; Shreelata Rao Seshadri, CGHR; Manmeet Kaur, PGIMER

• District monitoring project, Dr. RC Sethi, RGI

• Who to involve, and how do we improve political accountability for better health?

• Lead discussants: Dr. Sudharshan, Karuna Trust; Rajeev Gowda, IIM, Bangalore; Meenakshi Datta Ghosh, GOI

• A perspective from the National Rural Health Mission, Ms. Jailaja, NHRM

11:00 - 11:15 am:                       Tea break

11:30 am- 1:15 pm:                    Sustainable financing: from NHRM to a universal system

Co-Chairs:  Dr. David de Ferranti and Dr. Satish C. Jha

• Key messages from background paper from the Task Force on Health Care Financing: Anil Deolalikar, Univ of California, Riverside

• Discussants: Peter Berman, World Bank; Viroj Tangcharoensathien, International Health Policy Programme, Thailand

1:15 - 2:00 pm:               Lunch

2:00 - 3:00 pm:                           Closing session

Chair:    Sir George Alleyne

• Ramanan Laxminarayan: Concluding remarks on CEA

• Prabhat Jha: How to best disseminate the report? How to encourage state-level application of DCPP methods? How to monitor impact?

3:00 pm:                                    Re-cap of key issues of the day: Phyllida Brown

5:00 pm-onward:                        Closed group working sessions of report team.