CORE Net Conversations — Dr. Soumyadeep Bhaumik from the George Institute for Global Health (India)
In the interest of facilitating deeper connections with CORE Net members, we developed “CORE Net Conversations”. This series features conversations between members of the CORE Net secretariat and an individual or group of individuals from one of the member organizations. As the name suggests, these are intended to be conversational, in an effort to not only explore the work that is being done, but also to get to know the individuals doing the work. In this post, we share some takeaways from our conversation with Dr. Soumyadeep Bhaumik of the George Institute for Global Health (India). Their manifold projects throughout India investigate the impact of COVID-19 on health systems , while also seeking to add to the body of knowledge around the pandemic through randomised clinical trials. This includes their work to conduct rapid evidence synthesis to inform the scope and role of community health workers in COVID-19 response and to inform ways of optimising health systems capacity during the pandemic, and beyond.
What motivated your organization and you to take on this research effort?
The George Institute for Global Health is a research non-profit that has been active in India for the past 10+ years. Our core work is evidence-based research, and our mission is to help the lives of millions of people through improved health impacts via better treatment and care to create healthier societies. Given the magnitude of the pandemic and its impact on virtually every aspect of life including health system, we were heavily invested in the issue. Our institution hosts a rapid evidence synthesis unit , which provides on-demand synthesis of research to inform decision making by any public decision maker.
What were some of the challenges you faced and how did your team respond to these??
Getting timely evidence for decision making is a challenge. The gold standard for this is synthesizing research evidence using systematic reviews. However systematic reviews they take a lot of time — 6 months to a year. The need for an accelerated, rapid process of evidence synthesis has also been an adaptation we have worked on through our platform . Our unit does rapid evidence synthesis and an average this took 4–9 weeks . However for COVID-19 we did not have the luxury of weeks. We were given three days for a rapid review to inform what role ASHA’s and other community health workers can play for COVID-19 control. This was done just before the national lockdown was declared.
It was critical for to ensure that we are able to share insights and learnings as quickly as possible while also ensuring they are accurate.
What are some key learnings from your research project so far?
This work has been very personally very meaningful for me and my team because we are getting to work on something so important for the lives of many, and we have learned a great deal across our projects. One thing that everyone should keep in mind is the need to be prepared for disruptions in essential services delivery.We should be prepared and have clear guidelines on the essential activities that need to be prioritised (for this, guidance needs to be provided). We also need to provide frontline workers help in overcoming stigma and social isolation (e.g., provide psychosocial services), arrange childcare support, provide appropriate level of PPE, and more; there is a whole range of support mechanisms that need to be put in place to ensure the success and well-being of frontline researchers.
“This work has been very personally very meaningful for me and my team because we are getting to work on something so important for the lives of many.”
What has been the greatest value for you/what would you like as a value addition, as a CORE Net member?
Seeing the work of other members has been helpful to learn from, especially those who have experience with rapid evidence synthesis , as has hearing other people’s success stories and experiences with this process. It’s been very valuable learning from other contexts and implementation strategies.
Your report mentions that it is important to ensure CHWs mental wellbeing is being looked after, could you give a few examples of how this is being done?
We have found that having multiple versions for guidelines is unhelpful, and the Government of India has done a good job coming up with guidelines specific to the country. One aspect of this that has been especially important is providing information on the regions that the evidence has been collected from. This has been very important to make sure the evidence is not misused and has contextual relevance built into it.
Your report mentions that it is important to ensure CHWs mental wellbeing is being looked after, could you give a few examples of how this is being done?
We did not look at comparing different interventions for the purpose at that point of time. Peer support groups might be useful but are difficult to develop and facilitate in-person due to the pandemic and the need for social distancing and other considerations. Many organizations bridge this gap though, with WhatsApp groups standing in as a replacement for in-person peer support. Connecting people so that they can share their experiences and have someone to hear them out and talk or text is important as the work they are doing can be very stressful or even overwhelming.
What is one thing you would like everyone to know about the coronavirus pandemic’s impact in the communities you’re working in?
This is not really related to our work, but it is amazing to see how resilient communities are. Being resilient as a community, together, works. We should be humbler and support each other as a community. Above and beyond the pandemic response, we must build the social determinants of health in order to increase our collective resilience: ensuring that everyone has access to safe water and sanitation and adequate housing being chief amongst these.
“Connecting people so that they can share their experiences and have someone to hear them out and talk or text is important as the work they are doing can be very stressful or even overwhelming.”
