Advancing Maternal and Child Health in Nagpur, India.
Patricia Hibberd, chair of global health at the School of Public Health, has been working in Nagpur, India, for more than 20 years to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in the city and surrounding rural villages.
She works in close partnership with Archana Patel, vice president for the India-based Lata Medical Research Foundation (LMRF), founded in 2002. LMRF projects focus on improving outcomes in childhood pneumonia and neonatal sepsis; improving infant nutrition, using cell phone counseling; community and hospital mobilization to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality; and reducing indoor air pollution. The group conducts large population-based research and provides data for numerous training opportunities and clinical trials.
Hibberd and Patel conduct their research and programming within the government system, partnering with medical officers in primary health centers, doctors in government hospitals, and accredited social health activists. Together, LMRF projects engage roughly 10,000 pregnant women each year.
In early March, Hibberd visited Nagpur with Dean Sandro Galea; Michael Stein, chair and professor of health law, policy, and management; and Don Thea, professor of global health, for a series of meetings with LMRF and visits to research sites throughout the region.