India

ABOUT US

ACCESS Health India works closely with partners to create systems level change for the benefit of all Indians.

ACCESS Health India works closely with the government, donor organizations, and national and international researchers address issues at the systems level and improve and strengthen the overall healthcare system in India. Our research and programs have addressed issues ranging from primary care, digital health, risk pooling, and strategic purchasing to drive quality and accountability.

OUR PROGRAMS

ACCESS Health India’s work focuses on the building blocks of a healthy nation.

ACCESS Health India’s work is organized around five core elements within a health system: Health Systems Governance, Health Finance, Healthcare Provision, Digital Health, and Community Health. The work aligns with the five Centers of Excellence at the Institute for Health Systems Strengthening (IHSS).
1. Health Systems Governance (Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation, Regulation)
Strategies for Private Sector Engagement to Mobilize Resources for Healthcare Infrastructure in Underserved Areas
Even though the Indian government has committed to increasing public health expenditure from ~1.2% of GDP to 2.5%, there is limited fiscal space for health due to the ongoing national and international economic slowdown. Against this backdrop, ACCESS Health India and PwC, is developing policy recommendations to increase investments in healthcare, especially in tier II and tier III cities and towns. These investments would help meet the anticipated rise in demand caused by the recent rollout of the national public health insurance program, Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. ACCESS Health is also part of a consortium studying innovative financing models for cancer care and consumer health financing using fintech solutions.
Risk Pooling Strategies
Despite efforts to increase financial coverage for people living in poverty, out of pocket expenses still make up two thirds of total health expenditure in India. Employees in the formal sector have health coverage through their work, ninety percent of the Indian labor force exists in the informal sector where no such coverage exists. Rising costs of healthcare are becoming unaffordable even to the middle class, the majority of whom do not have any form of health finance protection. Interstate migrants, most of whom come from poorer sections of society, are denied public health insurance benefits. Given the highly fragmented payer system, there is a compelling case for the need for feasible plans to aggregate these pools to make the payer system most efficient and effective. ACCESS Health India, in partnership with national and international institutions, is working on modalities of risk pooling for policy uptake.
Strategic Purchasing
India continues with a decades old system of supply side line item budgeting for the public healthcare delivery system, despite the fact that this approach is inherently ineffective and inefficient. While the bundled payment system adopted by state and national public health insurance programs has introduced some efficiencies, the principles of strategic purchasing have yet to be adopted by the system at large. ACCESS Health and other international expert organizations are actively engaged with agencies implementing these insurance programs at the national level and in certain states on strategic purchasing with a goal to improve efficiencies across the health system.
Public Health Finance Management
In the face of limited public health expenditure, many states never realize the full potential of their allocated budget, with some states leaving nearly a third of their allocated budget on the table and unused due to inefficient finance management. ACCESS Health is working with the state government of Assam, USAID, and other strategic partners in India to optimize public health finance management. Other states may adopt similar improvements as well.
2. Health Finance (Mobilization, Pooling, Strategic Purchasing, Public Finance Management)
Research and Analysis of the Indian Health System
ACCESS Health India acted as the nodal center for in depth research and analysis of the Indian health system. Working closely with national and international experts and researchers in health financing, healthcare provision, and digital health, ACCESS Health India developed a portfolio of strategies for policymakers to choose from. The main body of the work was compiled in a book under the aegis of NITI Ayog, the national think tank for Indian policy.
Building Health Systems Research Consortium in India
ACCESS Health India was awarded the Secretariat role in a new health systems research consortium currently being developed in India. As the Secretariat, ACCESS Health India will coordinate research with a goal to providing guidance for health policy and implementation.
3. Healthcare Provision
Resources for Health
Human, material, machinery, and technology resources are vital inputs for a robust healthcare delivery system. ACCESS Health is partnering with US Pharmacopeia to study quality assurance in public drug procurement and supply systems across three states in India, with the goal of identifying gaps and best practices and sharing these findings with other states. ACCESS Health has begun an analysis of the current human resources for health situation in India, which is the most critical of all resources to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. The study will result in policy recommendations to strengthen this aspect of the health system.
Quality of Care
While financial protection for health is expected to improve with the rollout of the Ayushman Bharat program, many lives continue to be lost and many left disabled d due to poor quality of care in both public and private healthcare facilities. ACCESS Health India, in partnership with Health Care Services (HCS) Group, has created a performance improvement framework and tools to improve quality while reducing costs of delivering care. Some of the quality improvement learnings from our earlier flagship program on quality of care, Safe Care, Save Lives, were incorporated in the design of the framework. ACCESS Health is also focusing on evolving modalities to drive quality using strategic purchasing through state health authorities as a financial lever of in public and private health insurance programs.
Models of Care
Along with HCS Group, ACCESS Health has developed a 5 ‘P’ model for disease prevention and management programs: People, Pathways, Practice guidelines, Platform, and Performance measurement. We offer these models to digital health platforms for adoption. We are also working with partners to create a project to test the extension of benefit packages by social insurance programs for outpatient management of hypertension. The project will test the usual care approach against a team based disease management approach. We are also working with tech platforms to aggregate fragmented primary care networks to enable purchasing of primary care services from these networks. In addition, these platforms are being tested to integrate primary care with hospital-based care as an extended care model.
4. Digital Health
Digital Health for Universal Health Coverage
Based on the prior work on digital health strategies for transforming Indian health system for universal health coverage of quality care, ACCESS Health’s work has been instrumental in incorporation of some of the ideas in to recently published National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) that lays down the roadmap for digital health transformation. It created a Start-up Ecosystem Accelerator (SEA) to guide in adopting the standards articulated in NDHB. ACCESS Health Digital has been participating in various symposia and workshops to disseminate the plans articulated in NDHB.
Health Informatics Course to build capacity towards DH transformation
ACCESS Health is partnering with educational institutions to design and offer the courses to build human resources needed for digital health transformation.
e-Objects – a unique design concept
Along with metadata standards, ACCESS Health has introduced unique concept of e-Objects (e-discharge summary, e-claims, e-prescription etc.,) to further standardize core elements involved in health insurance information systems (HIIS), healthcare delivery information systems (HDIS), electronic health records (EHR), and personal health record (PHR) modules. ‘E-Claims’, designed by ACCESS Health is being adopted in the latest version of HIIS being commissioned by National Health Authority (NHA), the implementing body of PM-JAY.
5. Community Health
Community-based Cardio-vascular disease (CVD) Prevention Program – a longitudinal study
IHSS, in partnership with HCS group, is commencing a community-based CVD prevention program incorporating the principles of allied health professional team-based disease prevention and management program. In addition to studying the effectiveness of the structured program over long time, it will also evaluate financing models for adoption by healthcare payer systems.
National Registry of ASHA workers
As part of NDHB plans, national registers are being created for healthcare professionals, providers, and payers etc., to have accurate data for formulating policies. ACCESS Health Digital is actively engaged in designing the digital tools for these registers.

NEWS

All about ACCESS Health India

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Educating TSRTC Depot Volunteers

Krishna Reddy

CEO

Krishna Reddy, MD, is responsible for the overall development, management, and leadership of the activities of ACCESS Health across the Asia region. Krishna is a board certified cardiologist with a long and distinguished career, marked by his leadership of the CARE Hospital Group which he helped create. The hospital group is now recognized as the most advanced, complete cardiac care center in the country. The hospitals have become models for patient satisfaction and innovation.

Biswajeet Chatterjee

Vice President (Global), Finance and Corporate Affairs

Biswajeet Chatterjee has more than thirty years of industry experience including implementation of best practices in finance, corporate governance, merger and acquisitions, business valuation, business restructuring, and change management. Previously, he worked with global businesses including BOC Gases, EI DuPont, Kelly Services and Mother Dairy Group. He is also the author of several books in contemporary business and finance.

Bela Sehgal

Vice President (Global), Human Resources

Bela Sehgal is responsible for the overall human resources function at ACCESS Health International and is based out of New Delhi. She is a human resources professional with over forty years of experience within the development sector. Bela has worked with both international and national non- government organisations.

Maulik Chokshi

Deputy Country Director (Technical)

Maulik drives our health systems work in India and provides technical and programmatic leadership for our policy work. He is also responsible for strengthening internal technical capacities (research, capacity building, technical support works, policy advocacy etc.) across India. In his role as Deputy Country Director, Maulik will also be working on building ACCESS Health India as a thought leader with quality research outputs, building relationships with global, national, and sub-national researchers and practitioners. Maulik brings with him two decades' worth of health experience. He spent eight highly regarded years with the Public Health Foundation of India, worked as an advisor to the global healthcare information company IMS Health, and consultant to many national and international agencies and development partners. He has worked extensively on policies and capacity-building initiatives related to medicine procurement, pricing, immunization, maternal and child health and healthcare financing in an Indian setting.

Uma Aysola

Director (Global), Communications & Partner Engagement

Dr. Uma Aysola heads up alliances and partnerships at ACCESS Health India and is responsible for networking and relationship management with key government and corporate sector clients. As part of her role, she engages with state governments, pharmaceutical industries, multinational companies, and technical institutions to mobilize investments and action towards ACCESS Health’s overall vision.

Girish Babu Bommakanti

Director, Operations & Strategic Growth

Girish brings twenty years of experience in public health and the private healthcare sector, including multiple senior leadership positions in India, the Middle East, and Africa. In his work with access health, Girish provides strategic oversight to Health System Strengthening projects spanning primary and integrated healthcare, NCDs and mental health, health financing, digital and financial technologies, and quality management systems. He also leads India’s Fintech for Health program, which supports partnerships between health and fintech firms to design fintech products that improve access and affordability of healthcare.

Himani Sethi

Director, Programs

Himani Sethi leads the health systems capacity building work for ACCESS Health International. Her responsibilities include state engagement, expansion and, establishment of programs and collaborations with governments and external organizations for health systems strengthening. Himani has eighteen years of experience in public health in several high priority Indian states with leading policy making institutions, international foundations and private sector ecosystem.

Arun Nair

State Director, Kerala

Arun B Nair works with the ACCESS Health India team on health financing and systems research. Arun began his career with the National Health Systems Resource Center, New Delhi as a Health Finance Consultant and was involved in technical support for the implementation of health financing programs under the National Rural Health Mission. He later worked with the Institute of Public Health, Bangalore as a faculty member in Health Economics and Financing. He was Deputy Director Research of the State Health Systems Resource Center, Kerala prior to joining the ACCESS Health India team. Currently, he is a member of committee on costing of health services of Government of Kerala.

Tushar Mokashi

Assistant Director, Health Systems

Tushar Mokashi supports the overall healthcare financing and research work at Access Health International. He was previously associated with the healthcare financing team at National Health Systems Resource Centre, New Delhi for eight years providing continuous technical support on Healthcare Financing issues to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, State Departments of Health and Family Welfare, NITI Ayog, Finance Commission, Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation and other government institutions across the country.

Krishan Bhardwaj

Technical Head, Digital Health

Krishan Bhardwaj works with the ACCESS Health India digital health team and is responsible for our work on the design of an integrated health insurance platform for universal health coverage and developing a health data dictionary and national registries for the India Health domain.

Jitender Sharma

Finance Controller

Jitender is a qualified Chartered Accountant with more than 10 years of experience in the corporate and development sector. His key expertise is in finance and accounting, audit and compliance, corporate governance, developing accounting policies and processes, setting up financial systems, financial modeling, and process integration.

Shivani Chauhan

Assistant Manager (Procurement and Administration)

Shivani Chauhan works with the ACCESS Health International India Team. She manages the facilities and operations of the New Delhi office. She provides assistance to the Country Director and overall India team regarding administration. Previously, she worked in the Hospitality Industry. Shivani has a Bachelor's degree in English Honors from Delhi University.

Vineet Prakash

Technical Specialist (Claims and Risk Management)

Vineet Prakash works with ACCESS Health India’s Capacity Building Team for Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna as the Claims and Risk Management Specialist. Before joining ACCESS Health, he worked as the Assistant General Manager - Operations with MDIndia Health Insurance TPA Pvt Ltd. In this role, Vineet was responsible for implementation and ground work for mass health insurance schemes for various states such as Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, team handling, monitoring and field support, hospital empanelment, enrollments and audits, and liaising with state government health departments, vendor management, and fraud and investigation teams.

Dr. Anuradha Katyal

Technical Head (Research & Data Analytics)

Anuradha is a dynamic, public health professional and a quantitative researcher with 12 years of experience with strengths in public health research, implementation support, and knowledge management in the field of health financing, impact evaluation, primary care, urban health, and health service delivery. She holds a Master’s degree in Healthcare Management from the University of Surrey, and Master’s degree in Data Science from IIIT-Bangalore, and the Liverpool John Moore's University and a Bachelors in Dental Surgery. Anuradha has worked on an impact evaluation of the Aarogyasri Scheme of Andhra Pradesh which included a household survey of 19000 households and was a senior investigator for the Government of Andhra Pradesh in their project to assess the Urban Health Centers. She is a co-author on NITI Aayog’s ‘Health Systems for a New India: Building Blocks - Potential Pathways to Reforms’ . She has led a program with the Andhra Pradesh Health Systems Strengthening Project, to conduct a baseline study of Health and Wellness Centers. Currently she is working on ACCESS Health's Global Learning Collaborative for Health Systems Resilience on the generation and dissemination of the collaborative's knowledge products.

Manisha Tripathi

Consultant

Manisha Tripathi works on a technical support program to the Government of Uttar Pradesh for the largest public health insurance scheme in India called the "Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana". She comes with more than 15 years of experience in the public health sector and has worked on prestigious projects under leading organizations like Population Services International, Family Health International and Academy for Educational Development. Manisha is a communications and capacity building specialist along with expertise in government liasioning and networking.

Rajeev Prasad

Technical Specialist (Public Finance Management)

Rajeev Prasad is working with ACCESS Health India on the Public Financial Management System project for the state of Assam as a technical specialist in public financing. His work will include detailed research into the India National Health Mission Budget planning, implementation, and challenges related to the financial system. Before joining ACCESS Health, Rajeev worked with the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, PATH, and the National Health Mission Finance Division of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Priyanka Pathak

Technical Specialist (Capacity Building and Communication)

Priyanka is a Consultant at ACCESS Health International and presently part of health system capacity building. She will spearhead the State engagement, coordination and collaboration with State Government and look into operational efficiency in providing technical assistance. She has more than nine years’ experience in UP with six years looking into implementation of mass health insurance policy Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana.

Apoorva Sharma

Junior Digital Health Specialist, Digital Health

Apoorva Sharma is responsible for the technical implementation, design and solutions for NDHB building blocks based on Microservices Architecture for Digital Health for Access Health India. She will work with technical team to provide technical support to design pilots for the states. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak. She has worked with organizations like Meril LIfesciences, Olympus Medicals India, Medtronic Pvt. Ltd. India and Baxter Pvt. Ltd. India.

Lakshmi Shanthi

Manager, Human Resources and Contract Management

Lakshmi supports compliance and human resources needs. Her responsibilities include contract management, human resources management, compliance activities, and information management globally across ACCESS Health. She has more than 8 years of experience and holds a Master’s degree in Biotechnology from the University College for Women, Osmania University, Hyderabad.

Akshita Jain

Manager, Accounts

Akshita is responsible for accounting operations. She has 10 years of experience. She holds a Masters's degree in Commerce from Indira Gandhi National Open University and is pursuing a Company Secretary’s course from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India.

Harpreet Kaur

Research Associate

Harpreet is primarily involved in the NITI Extension Grant project documenting the private sector's impact on the State Government’s response to COVID-19. Previously she worked on SDG related projects and on community data based on health informatics tool SMAARTTM. Harpreet holds a degree in Master of Public Health from University College Dublin, Ireland. Prior to this, she attained a Post Graduate Diploma in Dietetics and Public Health Nutrition from Lady Irwin College, D.U.

Dr. Shrikant Kalaskar

Senior Technical Specialist (Public Health & Capacity Building)

Dr. Shrikant is a Public Health Professional and a trained epidemiologist, currently leading Public Health and Capacity Building initiatives in the organization.He has taken initiatives of starting various capacity building programs for Access Health.He is actively involved in members management and knowledge management streams of Global Learning Collaborative for Health Systems Resilience (GLC4HSR). Dr. Shrikant brings experience of more than a decade in planning, coordinating, and implementing public health research, health programs, and related activities.He holds a Master’s degree in Public Health (MPH) in Social Epidemiology from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai and Bachelor’s degree in Ayurved Medicine and Surgery. Before joining ACCESS Health, Dr. Shrikant has worked with organizations under Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, India like Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) as a medical scientist; National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW) as a research officer; and state health assurance society of Maharashtra, and Tata Trusts and organizations like CDC, Atlanta and Centre for Global Health Research, Toronto.

Prasanth Kumar Palepu

Senior Project Manager (Healthcare and Operations)

Prasanth has nearly 27+ years of experience in the Healthcare Industry with reputed Hospitals, having managed verticals such as Implementation and Coordination of Engineering Projects, Hospital Management, Operations Management, General Administration, MIS Management, Purchases, and Material Management and has consistently been rewarded for success in planning and Operational Improvements. He also has experience in Program Designing, Policy Making, SOP design, Training and Implementation. Prasanth holds Master’s degree in Operations Management from Symbiosis University, Pune, and also a Diploma in Hospital Administration.

Dr. Anju Aggarwal

Technical Head (Health Insurance & Innovation)

Dr. Anju Aggarwal is currently leading the health financing and insurance component in several programs in ACCESS Health International. She has almost 14 years of experience managing long term strategic initiatives and multiple projects in the Health Systems, health insurance and financing. She has strengths in project management, public health, health insurance, implementation support and knowledge management. Anju holds a diploma in Business Administration, Hospital Management and Bachelor’s degree in Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery. Previously she had been part of the national task force at ACCESS Health International and lead engagement for several states to undertake the rapid assessment to understand the preparedness, capacity needs for the rollout of PMJAY and facilitate prioritization and finalizing the protocols for engagement. Prior joining ACCESS Health she has worked with IPE global, Niti Aayog, GIZ, Ministry of Labor and private sector organizations.

Kavita Jha

Senior Technical Specialist (Healthcare Operations)

Kavita is a healthcare professional with overall 11+ years of experience in the field of healthcare delivery and operations and is passionate for contributing towards value based Integrated health system. She has extensive practical experience in Hospital Operations and has executed patient centric standalone sustainable and scalable programs centered to enhance the experience of service end users. At ACCESS Health International she has worked on Health transformation and capacity planning in Middle East, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for 22 hospitals and 150+ PHC’s, was part of Health package design related to women health for corporate working female, Health system research for integrated health care-Telangana. She has built the facility performance assessment tool for diagnosing the health status of both private and public health care facilities.Kavita has graduated in Zoology Science with a Masters in Biotechnology & Bioinformatics and pursued her MBA in Healthcare Management & Operations. She is Certified in Baldrige Excellence Framework for healthcare and lean six sigma.

Kaleem Mohammed

Senior Technical Specialist (Quality)

Kaleem specializes in healthcare operations, Quality Assessment, and Quality Improvement Programs, and currently, he is championing 2000 bedded Osmania General Hospitals and also leading the quality training for nurses and support staff for 2000+ members across entire district hospitals in Telangana. He has led the entire SafeCare quality assessment tool and improvement program. He was part of the team for health transformation in the Middle East for 22 hospitals and 150+ PHC's. Kaleem has almost 12 years of experience in public and private health sector, including multiple senior management positions in India. He holds Master’s Degree in Hospital Management from Osmaina University. Prior to joining ACCESS Health, Kaleem has worked with CARE Hospitals, Continental Hospitals, Global Hospitals, and DaVita Kidney Care.

Sushma Marita Dsouza

Project Officer

Sushma is a part of the research team of Access Health International and currently working in Health system strengthening and Global Learning Collaborative for Health System Resilience (GLC4HSR) projects. She has over four years of experience in public health research. She is skilled in quantitative and qualitative research approaches, domains of project monitoring and supervision, observation and documentation, conducting systematic reviews and data analysis. She has worked for BRIOTA Technologies PVT Ltd in Pune, the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) in Mumbai, and the Kasturba Medical College in Manipal. In her role as a project officer at IIPS, she was involved in projects such as the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI), the Study of Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) and the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India-Vision Intervention Study (LASI-VIS). Sushma holds a Master’s degree in Public health with a Maternal and Child Health specialization from Prasanna School of Public Health, MAHE, Manipal

Dr. S. SreeMeena

Project Associate

Dr. SreeMeena is a public health professional currently working in the area of Health System Strengthening. She is currently working with the Telangana Health Systems Strengthening Project to conduct a baseline study about the existing health systems catering to the population through systems approach. She is involved in the projects of Health System Strengthening, Integrated Care and Implementation, Health System Performance Assessment (HSPA) for Khammam district and Telangana State as a whole. She worked on research in Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) to improve health of the newborns, and in mother and child health, malnutrition, women’s health in the urban slums of Mumbai. She is a physiotherapist with a Master’s degree in Public Health, Health Policy, Economics and Finance from Tata institute of social sciences, Mumbai.

Dr. Chilshu Chandran

Project Officer

Dr. Chilshu Chandran is part of the Capacity Building vertical of Access Health International and she is responsible for strengthening capacity building vertical by developing and coordinating for various academic partnerships and running different courses/training for the internal team and external audience. She is an Ayurvedic doctor turned Public health professional, holding a Masters degree in Public Health- Health Administration from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has experience working as a Program Manager at an NGO that worked in the field of eye care and has also worked as a Quality Consultant and Content Developer for a Health and Management Institute. She is skilled in the program management process and is experienced in system strengthening, resource management, software development, and evaluation of various projects.

 Latika Rewaria

Project Manager

Latika is a Project Manager at ACCESS Health International for Global Learning Collaboration for Health System Resilience (GLC4HSR), based in Singapore. She is responsible to manage and coordinate project related information with three regional offices (South Asia, East Asia and South East Asia) and grant/donor agency on behalf of project management office. Latika has eight years experience in public health policy, communicable disease management, health finance, research, M&E, diseases surveillance, epidemiological investigation and universal health coverage. She has worked with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare - India, WHO, National Health System Resource Centre, ICMR, UNICEF and TLMTI. She has an active contribution in developing national level policy documents for Indian Government like National Health Policy 2017, Tribal Health policy, technical and operational guidelines for states, Urban health, Neglected Tropical Diseases and Ayushman Bharat, she also managed National Healthcare Innovation Portal for India. Latika holds a Master’s degree in Public Health, Gold Medalist from Central University of Hyderabad, India and Bachelor’s of Physiotherapy from Delhi University.

 Supriya Prabhakar

Senior Technical Specialist, Digital Health

Digital Health Informatics Professional with about 15 years of experience in building technology solutions for healthcare. Supriya is responsible for digital health initiatives across various programs, establishment of digital health partnerships with government and the public and private sectors, advising digital health startups as part of the social entrepreneurship accelerator program and capacity building initiatives. Her experience in Health Informatics spans across diverse regions including LMICs and HICs such as South-east Asia, India, United Kingdom, United States, and International Organizations (WHO). Supriya is a Medical Electronics engineer and holds a Master’s degree in International Health Management from Imperial College London, United Kingdom and another Master’s degree in Health Informatics from University of San Francisco, USA.

Komal Malhotra

Project Head, Digital Health

Komal drives digital health initiatives programs for ACCESS Health International in India. She provides technical and program management for digital health across multiple programs. She has twenty years of experience in managing IT programs over various domains and geographies. She has worked extensively on digital transformations, and initiatives related to health information systems and her responsibilities at ACCESS Health include managing digital health initiatives, partnerships with public and private sector, health informatics capacity building, data assets of organization and collaborations with external organizations for health systems strengthening.

Ankit Sharma

Assistant Manager, Finance and Accounts

Ankit is finance professional with over 6 years of experience in the field of Accounts, Audit and Compliance. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Delhi and is currently pursuing a Chartered Accountancy profession. Ankit is responsible for accounts, audit, and compliance at ACCESS Health International.

Dr. Shweta Singh

Senior Technical Specialist (Research and Public Health)

Dr. Shweta is a Public Health professional with nine years of experience at state and national-level and has worked in areas such as Health Informatics, Human Resources for Health (HRH), Comprehensive primary Health Care, Maternal and Child Health, Health policy. She holds a Post-Graduation in Public Health from Tata Institute of Social Sciences and a graduation in Dental Surgery. Past organizations were National Health Systems Resource Centre (NHSRC) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), New Delhi. At NHSRC (a technical advisory body to the Ministry of Health), developed strategic annual program plans and reviewed budgets for the Mission by coordinating with funding agencies, partner organizations and state governments for the implementation of various programmatic components of National Health Mission for a period of five years. She has worked closely on areas such as Mid-level health Care providers, Public health Cadre, Nursing governance and policies. At ICMR she managed a research project on under five mortality (A BMGF funded three years’ project) in New Delhi. She brings in assets of strong technical research skills, deep understanding of ground realities and implementation challenges, ability to analyse complex scenarios in Indian health system. Areas of interest include Health Policy Systems Research, Human Resources for Health and Primary health care.

Dr. Mehnaz Kabeer

Research Associate

Dr. Mehnaz Kabeer is a Public Health researcher. She currently works on conducting public health research, data analysis and research dissemination to the wider academic community. Prior to joining ACCESS Health, she worked as a consultant in the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) on a project assessing human resources for health in India. She has also worked on a project for developing the health equity profile for India and 5 focus states. She is skilled in conducting primary research and secondary research during her projects. She has also done qualitative and quantitative data analysis using large datasets. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from the Indian Institute of Public Health, Delhi, and a Bachelor’s degree in Homeopathic medicine from the University of Delhi. Her research interests are epidemiology, health economics, maternal and child health, Non-communicable diseases, Infectious diseases, and Healthcare Financing.

Dr. Arpita Dhawan

Business Analyst

Dr. Arpita is a public health professional and currently working on Digital Health. She is working on capacity-building initiatives as part of the digital health sub-group in Access Health International. She holds a Master's degree in Healthcare Management and Bachelor’s degree in dental surgery. Dr. Arpita comes with around 6 years of experience in Digital Health, Public Health, Program Management, Product Management, and Monitoring & Evaluation. She has previously worked on the National Digital Health Mission and Capacity Building for Adolescent Health Counselors.

Mausumi Daimari

Research Associate- Capacity Building

Mausumi is a public health professional working with ACCESS Health International. She holds Master’s degree in Public Health- Health Administration from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She is currently working with the capacity-building team as Research Associate. Her key responsibilities involve supporting in managing all the activities related to capacity-building initiatives of the organization like public health, health informatics, health insurance, leadership, and management, conducting research in areas of public health, population health, HRH, etc. It also includes identification and coordination with experts, building relationships, networking with various academic institutions and universities, conducting training need assessment by interviewing potential trainees, and understanding the needs of the market. Mausumi has worked with NHM and Directorate of Health Services (Assam), and Piramal Swasthya before as part of her academic internship.

Sananda Kumar

Technical Specialist (Capacity Building)

Sananda works with the health system capacity building team at Access Health International. He is responsible for providing technical and strategic support to states towards strengthening the implementation of health programs. This includes prioritization, developing, and implementing measurable technical interventions in collaboration with state and non-state actors. He has over ten years of experience in public health, health financing, implementation support, and research. Before joining Access Health, he worked with IQVIA providing technical support to the National Health Authority in implementing Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. Before that, he was associated with Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust-Karnataka as deputy director, Himachal Pradesh State Health Agency, and GIZ in steering and implementing demand-side health financing schemes. Sananda holds Masters of Public Health in Health Policy, Economics & Finance from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (Collaboration with London School of Economics).

Pappu P S

Project Head

Pappu P S is part of the Capacity Building team in ACCESS Health, leading the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) Implementation Support (State Engagement) projectin Kerala. He is responsible for steering the strategic advisory support and technical assistance in implementing government sponsored health insurance programmes in Kerala. Pappu holds a Masters Degree in Social Work and has more than 12 years of experience working with Central & State Governments and International Development Agencies. Before joining ACCESS Health, he was working with German Development Cooperation (GIZ) supporting National Health Authority (NHA). He was also associated with Comprehensive Health Insurance Agency of Kerala (CHIAK), Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), and Family Health International (FHI360) in the past.

Preeti Chanyal

Technical Specialist (Digital Health)

Preeti Chanyal works as a Technical Specialist (Digital Health) in Access Health International and is responsible for the engineering research and desigining for the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) building blocks. Preeti is a skilled application programmer with over 6+ years of experience in designing and implementing enterprise solutions, majorly in Banking and Finance Domain and has worked with Tata Consultancy Services previously. She holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar Uttarakhand.

Dr. Diksha Bhasin

Junior Business Analyst

Dr. Diksha is a Healthcare Professional and is working with the Digital Health Team at ACCESS Health International. She holds a Master's degree in Healthcare Management and Bachelor’s degree in Dental Surgery. She has worked on National Digital Health Mission, Social health protection programs during her internship. She is working on capacity-building initiatives as part of the Digital Health Team at ACCESS Health International.

Shiffali Singla

Junior Business Analyst

Shiffali is a Healthcare Professional and is working with the Digital Health team at ACCESS Health International. She is working on capacity-building initiatives as part of the digital health. She is currently working on the project - Social Health Protection Program. She holds a Master’s degree in Healthcare IT Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy.

Aaliyah Ali Khan

Research Associate

Aaliyah Ali Khan is a Research Associate working with the Research and Policy team at ACCESS Health International. She supports the team on Health Systems Research related projects. With a background in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University, she recently completed the Young India Fellowship in Liberal Studies at Ashoka University. Her previous experience includes working as a Program Associate at the Health Systems Transformation Platform.

Dr Shareef Muhammed

Project Officer

Dr Shareef Muhammed is a public health professional, and he is associated with Access Health International's Capacity Building (PM-JAY State Engagement) team as a Project Officer. He has worked as a District Technical Officer for Care India and as a Programme Coordinator (Hospital Referral Operations) for a reputable chain of hospitals in the United Arab Emirates. Dr Shareef has contributed his expertise to the implementation of several central government quality improvement programmes, including LaQshya, Kayakalp, and continuous quality improvement interventions in the state of Bihar. He has a strong understanding of hospital revenue cycle management, process flows, and strategy formulation, as well as expertise in public health project management, health informatics, and the administrative and revenue operations of hospitals. Dr Shareef holds a Master of Public Health in Health Policy, Economics, and Finance from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (in collaboration with the London School of Economics), and he has a Degree in Dental Surgery.

Mohit Chahal

Research Associate

Mohit Chahal is a dedicated healthcare management professional with a background in healthcare management and research. He has done Master in Healthcare Administration. Currently working as Research Associate at Access Health International, Mohit is involved in the Implementation Research of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). As he has also gained experience as a Program Intern at PATH, where he led the implementation of the Scan & Share Initiative (an ABDM module) at Lady Hardinge Medical College and Hospital, New Delhi. With a commitment to professional growth, Mohit holds various certifications in Public Health, Healthcare Management and Digital Health. His ambition is to contribute to the healthcare industry while enhancing his skills and serving organization with dedication.

Dr Abbas Kazim

Project Manager

Dr Abbas Kazim is a public health professional, and is part of the Health Systems Capacity Building team and based out of Lucknow. He holds Masters degree in Public health from the University of technology, Jaipur & comes with more than 8 years of experience in the Public health sector and has worked in prestigious projects under leading organizations like John Snow India, American India Foundation, Family Health International etc. Dr Abbas has contributed his expertise to the implementation of several Public health Programmes giving technical assistance to the Government of Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Haryana, Bihar etc. He has expertise in Project Management, health informatics, government liaising, monitoring & evaluation and communications.

Roshna P Unni

Community Manager

Roshna P Unni is a Consultant at ACCESS Health International, specializing in community building within the research sector. Her work is focused on establishing a robust research community by leveraging online platforms. In her role, Roshna is responsible for engaging with researchers and practitioners, facilitating interactions on the community's online portal. She has 10 years of experience in software testing (QA) and community engagement. Roshna holds a Master's degree in Computer Application (MCA) and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science (BSc CS).

Dr. S. Dhananjaya Naidu

Lead partnership & innovations

Part of the Health Systems Capacity Building team, Dr. S. Dhananjaya Naidu is a health financing expert with a background in the implementation of social health insurance schemes in India. He is a BDS doctor with a post-graduation in health economics and policy from PHFI, Delhi, and has over 17 years of experience. Through the course of his extensive career, Dr. Dhananjaya has worked across levels in the private and public sectors—holding integral roles with Mediassist TPA health care pvt. Ltd, Medverve Fintech Solutions in Bangalore, the Government of Karnataka. He has played an important role in convergence of schemes and bringing them under one umbrella and implement a universal health coverage scheme “Arogya Karnataka”. During his tenure he also implemented a scheme to cover Golden hour treatment for Accident victims in a successful manner and most recently the National Health Authority under Government of India where he contributed to policy-level changes for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana andhas led the team in updating of Health benefit packages 2022 and its implementation. He also played a key role in implementation of eRupi pilot under PMJAY which was a mile stone in integration of Digital system of payments under PMJAY.

Rishibha Gupta

Senior Manager, Communications

Rishibha supports the strategic program communications at ACCESS Health. An experienced communications professional with a demonstrated history of working in the development sector and media, communicating for progress is her passion. Content, documentation, public relations (PR), art direction, new age media, events, social behaviour change communication (SBCC), films are elements that make her work exciting every day. A graduate in History Honours from St. Stephens College, Delhi Rishibha has worked with broadcast, print and digital mediums to tell stories and share news and features. Some of the places she has worked at were Sightsavers India, India Today, Room to Read, News X, Child Magazine among others. She seeks to leverage her skills and expertise to raise awareness, inspire action, and generate impact for the causes her organisation works towards.

Stuti Shukla

Lead, Communications

Stuti brings over fourteen years of diverse experience, specializing in development communications, journalism, and public policy. At ACCESS Health, she manages the strategic communications for the organization and its associate partners. Stuti oversees various organizational communication channels, including websites, social media platforms, newsletters, and outreach collaterals, ensuring seamless brand alignment. A significant portion of her role is dedicated to enhancing the brand, communications, and outreach efforts for the Global Learning Collaborative for Health Systems Resilience. Stuti commenced her career in journalism at The Indian Express, Mumbai, where she covered key ministries like Health & Family Welfare and Women & Child Development, with a keen focus on civic infrastructure and governance. Transitioning into public policy, she joined ACCESS Health as a Research and Documentation Consultant, actively contributing to impactful research projects. Stuti holds a Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and a Bachelor's in Journalism from K.C. College, Mumbai University.