Contributor : Profile

Abhijit Chowdhury is a Clinical Professor and Chair of Liver Disease at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Kolkata, West Bengal. Beyond his clinical responsibilities, he has been involved in designing and implementing impactful interventions in rural healthcare delivery, based on the pragmatic understanding of an academic and an activist. As the lead researcher at Liver Foundation, West Bengal, he has been the driving force behind a capacity building programme for informal healthcare providers in the state. This action research has received policy recognition and is being scaled up with Prof. Chowdhury advising the state government on the scale-up plan. His ability to dialogue with policymakers while maintaining his academic position and skills are particularly relevant in the context of the present programme. He had been a distinguished visiting fellow at the Division of policy translation and leadership development, Harvard Chan School of Public health. He leads a Health and Demographic Surveillance programme in West Bengal and is board member of the INDEPTH network to improve health surveillance for policymaking. He has been quoted extensively in journalistic writings on informal provider programmes (Sharma Dinesh, "India still struggles with rural doctor shortages", Lancet, Volume 386, No.10011, 12 December 2015; Pulla Priyanka, "Are India’s quacks the answer to its shortage of doctors?", BMJ 2016, 352:i291; 'Can training ‘fake’ doctors improve India’s healthcare?', BBC News, 11 October 2016).