Dr Amar Jesani

Dr Amar Jesani is a medical doctor working as an independent consultant – researcher and teacher – in bioethics and public health, in Mumbai, India. He is one of the founders of the FMES (Forum for Medical Ethics Society) and its journal, IJME (Indian Journal of Medical Ethic)s. He is also its present editor. He is one of the founding trustees of the Anusandhan Trust, which manages the health research institute, CEHAT (Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes – www.cehat.org) in Mumbai, and the health action institute, SATHI (Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives), in Pune, India.

Currently, he is a consultant and co-principal investigator (PI) of the Wellcome Trust-supported research project titled “Investigating reproductive ethics-in-context: the Indian experience” with King’s College, London. He has also been researching the impact of torture prevention mechanisms over the last three decades in India, as co-PI of a project supported by the Association for the Prevention of Torture, Geneva. Read more…

Dr Anant Bhan

Dr. Anant Bhan works with Sangath at its Bhopal Hub office. He is a medical graduate with a master’s (MHSc) in Bioethics from the University of Toronto in Canada. He is a researcher in global health, health policy and bioethics with over 18 years of experience and numerous publications to his name.

Anant has been a resource person for trainings in global health, research methodology, research ethics and public health ethics, and also serves as guest faculty in various educational institutions in India and abroad. He is also the immediate past president of the International Association of Bioethics (2017-19), serves as an Adjunct Professor in Yenepoya (deemed to be University), and is a member of several committees. Anant has been regularly writing in mass media, participated in webinars and TV shows, as well as quoted in multiple news reports on COVID-19. He has also been actively sharing updates and scientific information through his social media channels https://www.linkedin.com/in/anant-bhan-53233b11/ and on Twitter @AnantBhan

Dr Calvin WL Ho.

Dr Calvin Ho is Co-director of HKU ( University of Hong Kong). He holds a doctorate in juridical science from Cornell University (New York), and was also trained in law at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the University of Cambridge (England). In addition, he read sociology and economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). Dr Ho is qualified as Advocate & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore, and as Solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. He has practiced law in London and Singapore with Messrs Linklaters Allen & Gledhill, and has served as a medicolegal expert advisor to the Medical Protection Society (MPS). Dr Ho is currently an Ethics Board member of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Co-Head of the Accountability Policy Task Team of the Global Alliance for Genomics & Health; and a research affiliate with the Ethox Centre, University of Oxford.

Prior to joining HKU, Dr Ho was Assistant Professor at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS; Co-Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Bioethics in Singapore; and Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Bioethics Review. Additionally, he has served as a statutory board member of the Singapore Nursing Board, the Legal Aid Bureau of the Ministry of Law of Singapore, as well as on national advisory committees on transplantation and on genetic testing of the Ministry of Health of Singapore.

E. Premdas Pinto

E. Premdas Pinto, is a human rights lawyer and public health scholar engaged in processes and social justice issues of the marginalized communities in India for the last 30 years. His academic journey includes multi-disciplinary scholarship – social sciences, philosophy, law and human rights – from eminent institutions combined with strategic action to uphold the rights of the disadvantaged. His praxis of social justice includes engaging with the dam displaced people, Dalit women agricultural labourers and several social movements addressing the issues of manual scavengers, beedi & construction workers, rural wage workers and health movements addressing the issue of wellbeing, dignity and justice. His doctoral work was on health care jurisprudence in India based on the analysis of health litigations in India in the post-independence period. He has published several papers and is the author of the book, Health Justice in India: Citizenship, Power and Health Care Jurisprudence (Springer 2021). Currently, he is a faculty in Azim Premji University, Bangalore, and teaches development, public health and human right to health

Jagdish Patel

JAGDISH Patel (B.1957) passed Diploma in Chemical Engg (DChE). and then worked in different chemical factories around Vadodara till 1998. in 1986 he helped establish Vyavsayik Swasthya Suraksha Mandal (VSSM)- a local pressure group on OSH. In 1990, he passed Diploma in Industrial safety (DIS), course required to work as Safety Officer. This enabled him work as Safety officer in Ashok Organic Ind. Ltd. In 1988, he started editing OSH newsletter in Gujarati called “SALAMATI” till 2017. He wrote and published several popular publications including research reports, educational material, case studies, directory of hazards of chemicals etc. on the subject in Gujarati and English. In 1992 he established Peoples Training & Research Center. Since 1998 he is working full time for the organization. PTRC has played an important role in identifying pockets of silicosis in Gujarat and shape policy for the victims.

Since 1988 he started actively working with silicosis victims of agate industry in Khambhat. PTRC consistently has advocated for social justice for the victims. In 2007, he received International award from OHS Section of the American Public Health Association.

Dr James Dwayer

Dr James Dwayer, is Professor of Bioethics and Humanities. He teaches required ethics courses in both the preclinical and clinical years. He also teaches elective courses on physicians and social responsibility, and he supervises the Nightingale scholars in the third year.

In addition to teaching at Upstate Medical University, Dr. Dwyer often lectures and teaches abroad. In recent years, he has lectured in Canada, Mexico, Switzerland, Pakistan, and Taiwan. In 2011-2012, he received a Fulbright Scholar Grant to teach at the College of Medicine at National Taiwan University.

His written work focuses on broad issues about social justice, ethical responsibility, and ethics education. His writings have appeared in Academic Medicine, Bioethics, Hastings Center Report, Public Health Ethics, and other journals. He always tries to make his intellectual work of practical value, and his practical work of intellectual interest.

Adv Kajal Bhardwaj

Adv. Kajal Bhardwaj is a lawyer based in Delhi. She has been working on HIV, health and human rights for two decades with a special focus on trade, intellectual property and health.

Dr. Kaustubh Joag

Dr. Kaustubh Joag, Senior Research Fellow & Consultant Psychiatrist , Kaustubh is a trained psychiatrist, completed his training in 2006 from the University of Mumbai. He works as a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy at the Indian Law Society, Pune. He is a project co-lead for large scale, community-led intervention called ‘Atmiyata’ which aims to reduce mental health care gap in rural India. He has worked on Atmiyata since its inception: first, as Co-principal Investigator through its proof-of-concept stage; and as Principal Investigator for the transition-to-scale stage. He also co-leads the social franchise model for this project in partnership with community-based organizations like Ambuja Cement Foundation and Hasiru Dala. Additionally, Kaustubh coordinates the Centre’s International Diploma in Mental Health Law and Human Rights. He has completed this diploma in 2013-14. He is also a practicing psychiatrist since 2006.

Dr P. Manickam

Dr P. Manickam serves as Scientist F (Epidemiology) at ICMR-NIE. He is a physician in Siddha Medicine, the counterpart of Ayurveda in South India. He did Masters and Ph.D., in Epidemiology. He serves as core faculty for two-year Masters in field epidemiology/public health programmes of ICMR School of Public Health since 2001. He co-ordinates development and running of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in health research. He teaches in several short-term training programmes. His core areas are (a) teaching and training in field epidemiology (b) public health preparedness and surveillance during mass gatherings (c) programme evaluation (d) chemotherapeutic trials for leprosy (e) clinical research in traditional medicine. He has published 42 papers and two chapters in books.

Dr. Nilesh Gawde

Dr. Nilesh Gawde (MD PSM), Assistant Professor, Center for Public Health, School of Health Systems Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He has worked in the past for HIV and TB control programmes and is also currently associated with these in various capacities. He is involved in teaching MPH programmes at TISS. His research interests include TB, HIV, migration and environmental health. Among his publications, include two commentaries on ethics in public health interventions.

Dr Srijit Mishra

Dr Srijit Mishra PhD (Professor, IGIDR; former Director, NCDS) researches and teaches on development-related issues that intertwine between social philosophy, analytical measurement and applied development. He has been instrumental in spearheading the Odisha Millets Mission that brought together the Government, civil society and the Academia for a pro-people action research initiative that works in four verticals – production, processing, marketing and consumption. His work on cyclone Fani, as part of a multi-disciplinary team involving the Government of Odisha and many multilateral agencies, dealt with macroeconomic and human impact that has important methodological and policy implications. His work on farmers’ suicides in Maharashtra led to the setting-up of Vasantrao Naik Kshetkari Swabhilambhan Mission and other policy outcomes, including the deliberations leading to debt waiver. Some of his publications are on agrarian issues, measurement of development indicators, and poverty among others. He has been a Guest Scholar at Meiji University, Japan during June 2016, ICCR Chair Professor at the National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, spring semester, 2015, and Subir Chowdhury Fellow on Quality and Economics, London School of Economics and Political Science, spring 2014. His M.Phil./Ph.D. on tribal agrarian economies were carried out at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram and awarded by the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi

Dr Subha Sri Balakrishnan

Dr Subha Sri Balakrishnan is an obstetrician with extensive experience of close to two decades working with community organizations to improve women’s health in India. She has worked on maternal and sexual and reproductive health issues in India and has engaged with both governments and civil society to bring attention to and address the health systems factors contributing to poor maternal and reproductive health outcomes. She has led civil society initiatives in implementing maternal death reviews in marginalized populations and worked with governments to respond to the findings. She has represented civil society organizations on the Global MPDSR Technical Working Group of the WHO. Through her work for over a decade with Rural Women’s Social Education Centre a dalit women’s organization in Tamil Nadu, Dr Subha Sri has gained a deep understanding of the realities of gender, caste and poverty, and their role as key social determinants in women’s health. This has led her to adopt a human right based and social determinants focused lens in all her work

Dr Sunita Sheel Bandewar

Dr Sunita Bandewar has training in Anthropology and Bioethics. She was awarded an International Fellowship by the International Fogarty Centre, NIH, USA, to pursue a Masters in Health Sciences (Bioethics) at the Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto, Canada, in 2003-04. She was a senior research fellow in bioethics and global health at the University of Toronto on the initiative titled 201 Ethical, Social, Cultural Program in Global Health 201, Canada, for five years. Her engagement with health, as a field of enquiry over these past 30 years, is primarily via empirical research and advocacy in the areas of women and health, gender-based violence, global health, and bioethics, global health, research methodology, program evaluation, and policy analysis. She is the General Secretary, FMES, and serves on the core editorial team of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME), and heads FMES’ newly established programmatic platform namely, Health, Ethics and Law Institute (HEaL Institute) for Training, Research and Advocacy. She serves on the International Ethics Review Board, Médecins Sans Frontières, Geneva. She serves on the editorial board of Health Care Analysis. Her contributions at ResearchGate

Dr Tarun Bhatnagar

Dr Tarun Bhatnagar, MBBS, MD, PhD, PGDBE, serves as Scientist F (School of Public Health) at ICMR-NIE.has worked at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)–National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE) in Chennai, India since 2008. He heads the ICMR School of Public Health and provides leadership and oversight as the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) – MPH Coordinator and serves as faculty for the Master of Public Health and PhD programs offered by the ICMR School of Public Health at ICMR-NIE. His research interests include causality, epidemiological and behavioral studies among HIV high-risk populations, emerging infectious disease epidemiology and interventions, cohort studies, operations research, and evaluation of public health control strategies and programs. Dr. Bhatnagar completed his medical training at Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal, India in 1999. In 2003, he received his MD in Preventive and Social Medicine from Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India. He was the recipient of the NIH Fogarty fellowship for his PhD in epidemiology under the AIDS International Training and Research Program at the University of California Los Angeles, USA from 2004-2011. He trained in bioethics at Indira Gandhi National Open University in Delhi, India. Dr. Bhatnagar has published 70+ research papers in peer-reviewed journals and four book chapters.

Dr Vijayaprasad Gopichandran

Dr Vijayaprasad Gopichandran obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, 2002) from the Madras Medical College, Chennai and Doctor of Medicine in Community Medicine (MD, 2010) from the Christian Medical College, Vellore. Following this he worked at the Rural Women’s Social Education Center, a rights-based women’s organization in Kancheepuram, providing community-based health care services in rural areas. He pursued doctoral research in Public Health Ethics at the SRM University, Kattankulathur, Kancheepuram District with an INSPIRE Fellowship from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. His area of work for the PhD is “trust in the doctor-patient relationship”. After obtaining a PhD degree in Nov 2015, he is currently assistant professor at the Department of Community Medicine, ESIC Medical College and PGIMSR, KK Nagar. He also volunteers his clinical services on a weekly basis at the RUWSEC clinic in a remote underserved village, Karumarapakkam in Kancheepuram district. His areas of interest include non-communicable diseases epidemiology, health communication, doctor-patient relationships, medical and public health ethics.

He has served as working editor for the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics since 2014. He is also consulting for the World Health Organization for developing ethical guidelines for public health surveillance and developing a curriculum for training in ethics of implementation research. He has more than 14 years of primary care clinical work experience in outpatient and inpatient settings and 6 years of clinical work in community outreach projects. He has been actively involved in community-based epidemiological and bioethics research, more than 20 of which have been published in national and international journals.