Document(s) 19 of 21

Dr Somsak Chunharas graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University in 1997. He also holds a Masters Degree in Public Health in Development and Planning from the Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam (1983), and a Certificate in Financing Health Care in Developing Countries from Boston University (1988). He is currently the Director of the Bureau of Health Policy and Planning of the Ministry of Public Health, Thailand. His current fields of interest are hospital management in rural Thai communities, policy analysis for health services and human-resource development, information-systems development, research management, and international health affairs. Dr Chunharas’s previous appointments include those of Vice-chair of the Rural Doctor Association, Secretary-General of the Thai Medical Council, Vice President of the National Epidemiology Board of Thailand, and member of the King Ananthamahidol Foundation Medical Committee. Dr Chunharas chairs the Council for Health Research and Development Working Group on Research to Action and Policy and coordinates the Asia–Pacific Network on Health Systems and Policy Research.

Dr Tessa Tan-Torres Edejer is an internist and infectious-disease specialist from the University of the Philippines, Manila. She received training in clinical epidemiology and clinical economics through the International Clinical Epidemiology Network. Her research interests include tuberculosis, quality of care, and economic evaluations. In Manila, she has worked closely with the Essential National Health Research program in the Department of Health and with the Tuklas-Lunas Foundation, a nongovernmental organization that supports Essential National Health Research in the Philippines. At present, she is working as a medical officer and scientist in Geneva with the World Health Organization, in the cluster of Evidence and Information for Policy.

David Harrison (MBChB, MSc [medicine], MPP) is currently the National Programmes Director of Lovelife, a national AIDS-prevention program in South Africa. He was the founding Executive Director of the Health Systems Trust, a nongovernmental organization supporting health-sector reform in South Africa, and subsequently directed the Initiative for Sub-District Support (aimed at improving service delivery by focusing on the quality of local health care). He chairs the Council on Health Research for Development Working Group on Promotion, Advocacy and Country Mechanisms for Essential National Health Research.

Dr Javid Hashmi is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh). He is a Pakistani physician who, before joining the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1979, held clinical and research appointments in Pakistan, including Director of Pakistan Medical Research Council. In WHO, he successively served as Regional Adviser of Research Promotion and Development and as Director of Health Protection and Promotion in the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, followed by appointments as Chief of Research Capability Strengthening in the WHO–United Nations Development Programme–World Bank Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and as WHO Representative in Iran.

Nancy Johnson (MA) is a health social scientist who works as a consultant on qualitative-research design, data collection and analysis, and development of health and social-science manuscripts. Previous research projects span a broad range of areas, including the design of culturally appropriate AIDS educational interventions in Zimbabwe; community-based maternal- and child-health programs for Latin American immigrants in Hamilton, Canada; patient-centred breast-cancer treatment decision-making; and decisions to withdraw life support in intensive-care settings. Ms Johnson also coedited Nurtured by Knowledge: Learning to Do Participatory Action–Research (IDRC, 1997).

Dr Koos is a graduate of Semmelweis University of Medicine, Budapest. He is currently a consultant in the area of primary health care and development.

Dr Peter Makara is a social scientist from Hungary, where he has pursued his interests in health promotion and education. He was active in promoting Essential National Health Research in Hungary and Eastern Europe and joined the Board of the Council on Health Research for Development in 1999. Recently, he joined the World Health Organization European Centre for Health Policy, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Dr Mechbal is Regional Advisor for Research and Policy Coordination for the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, which is in Alexandria, Egypt.

Mutuma Mugambi (MD, PhD) is Professor at and Vice-Chancellor of Kenya Methodist University. He is a past Director of Medical Research in Kenya and has served as an advisor to a number of international and regional research bodies. Recently, Dr Mugambi led the African consultation to prepare for the upcoming conference on health research for development in Bangkok.

Victor Neufeld is a physician, educator, and international consultant based in Hamilton, Canada, where he is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Epidemiology at McMaster University. Over a period of more than 25 years, he has held various academic leadership positions in the university, the last of which was Director of the Centre for International Health. He has served as a consultant and adviser to many international agencies, institutions, and organizations in the area of capacity-building for health-system reform and leadership development.

Yvo Nuyens (PhD) is the Coordinator of the Council on Health Research for Development. His past appointments include Chair of the Department of Sociology and President of the Sociological Research Institute at the University of Louvain (Belgium) and Programme Director for Health Systems Research and Development, World Health Organization Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. He has published a number of books and articles on the interface between health research and decision-making and on sociocultural perspectives on health and medicine.

Alberto Pellegrini Filho (MD, PhD) is currently Coordinator of the Research Program, Division of Health and Human Development, the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Americas and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Dr Pellegrini’s scientific background is in neuroscience, and since joining PAHO in 1986 he has been studying and publishing on the health-research situation and policies in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Dr David Picou is the Director of Research of the Caribbean Health Research Council (a regional organization that advises 18 Caribbean governments on all matters relating to health research). He is the Focal Point (coordinator) for Essential National Health Research (ENHR) in the Caribbean and has had some association with the Council on Health Research for Development for several years. He was Professor of Experimental Medicine and Director of the Tropical Metabolism Research Unit, Jamaica, where he worked for more than 20 years on malnutrition in infants. His continuing interests have been promotion of ENHR, health-research capacity-strengthening, and health-research ethics.

Chitr Sitthi-amorn (MD, PhD) is the President-elect of the International Epidemiology Association and the founding Dean of the College of Public Health, Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok. He has a very diverse background, starting his career as a neuroscientist, then becoming a clinician, an epidemiologist, a clinical epidemiologist, and finally, the founding Dean of the College of Public Health at the oldest university in Thailand. As the Asian Focal Point (coordinator) for Essential National Health Research, he has used a combination of face-to-face meetings and electronic dialogue to capture the “Asian voice” on health research for development. He is a former member of the Board of the International Clinical Epidemiology Network and has worked with colleagues around the world in setting priorities for curriculum change, policy development, and capacity-strengthening for medicine and public health.

Dr Charas Suwanwela is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and former President of Chulalongkorn University. Currently, he serves as Chair of the Board of the Council on Health Research for Development, the Policy Board of the Thailand Research Promotion Fund, and the Higher Education Committee of the Thailand Ministry of University Affairs. He is a former member of the Thailand National Legislative Assembly and Senate. He received the award for Citizen of Outstanding Achievement from the National Cultural Commission of Thailand and the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Prem Tinasulanond Foundation of Thailand.

Susan Reynolds Whyte (PhD) is Professor at the Institute of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen. She has carried out ethnographic fieldwork for many years in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. In addition to publishing articles and book chapters on gender, development, and health, she coedited a book on pharmaceuticals in developing countries and one on disability and culture. Her book, Questioning Misfortune (Cambridge University Press, 1997) examines the management of illness and death in eastern Uganda. She has a strong interest in applied anthropology, is a member of the Board of the Council on Health Research for Development, and works with the Enhancement of Research Capacity program, funded by Danish International Development Assistance.

Document(s) 19 of 21