Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI)

The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is a public private initiative that has collaboratively evolved through consultations with multiple constituencies including Indian and international academia, state and central governments, multi & bi-lateral agencies and civil society groups. PHFI is a response to redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health. Structured as an independent foundation, PHFI adopts a broad, integrative approach to public health, tailoring its endeavours to Indian conditions and bearing relevance to countries facing similar challenges and concerns. The PHFI focuses on broad dimensions of public health that encompass promotive, preventive and therapeutic services, many of which are frequently lost sight of in policy planning as well as in popular understanding. PHFI recognizes the fact that meeting the shortfall of health professionals is imperative to a sustained and holistic response to the public health concerns in the country which in turn requires health care to be addressed not only from the scientific perspective of what works, but also from the social perspective of, who needs it the most.

Main roles in project

PHFI will lead work directed at incorporating the new influenza vaccine within the current public health system in India. Specifically, this will include two objectives: (i) Estimation of the theoretical demand for a new influenza vaccine, and (ii) Optimization/maximization of the efficiency and effectiveness of a stratified vaccination program. For the first objective, PHFI will assess the influenza disease burden and conduct a needs assessment. For accomplishing the second objective, PHFI will conduct a gap analysis of the current national immunization program for the incorporation of the new influenza vaccine. Furthermore, PHFI will also identify the potential enablers, barriers and challenges for the acceptance and community mobilization of the new influenza vaccine among the targeted beneficiaries. Any possible regulatory issues in the incorporation of the new influenza vaccine into the current national immunization program will also be identified. This will inform the process of development and implementation of a capacity-building program for the current health workforce to incorporate the new influenza vaccine. PHFI will also contribute to the management and coordination of the consortium as a work package leader.

Contact: Dr. Sailesh Mohan

This project has received funding from the European Union H2020 (grant no. 874866) and the Dept. of Biotechnology, Govt. of India (project no. BT/IN/EU-INF/16/AP/19-20/11746)