TB experts gathered in New Delhi in August to review two decades of operational research conducted in India with the goals of disseminating the data most relevant to meeting today's TB control challenges and setting an agenda for future research.
The meeting on 26–27 August took place under the auspices of the TREAT TB initiative and was organised by The Union South-East Asia Office (USEA) in collaboration with the Central TB Division, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Operational research is an essential tool for addressing programmatic issues, such as delays in diagnoses, irrational use and sale of anti-TB drugs, engaging the private sector and reducing defaults in new and previously treated cases. At the meeting, 75 experts and key officials from India's Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) and premier medical institutes shared their experiences with generating evidence and brainstormed about how credible OR could feed into and inform TB control policy and practice. Then participants worked in groups to prioritise areas for future operational research. Dr Ajay Kumar from USEA also presented The Union model of OR and explained how it had been building, year by year, a global community of skilled researchers using this approach.
The Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Anshu Prakash, commended the timeliness of the event and assured the audience that the RNTCP would take up the workshop outcomes promptly, since OR was crucial to formulating cost-effective solutions to a wide range of challenges.
The Union's TREAT TB (Technology, Research, Education and Technical Assistance for TB) initiative is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).