In addition to the above, certain long pending research and consultancy projects as shown in Table-4 are continued in the reporting period, which were taken up in earlier reporting years. The research project on "Epidemology of Road Traffic Accidents" was completed and a report submitted in April 2009. A brief summary of each of these projects is given in Annexure-7.

 

Table-4: Continuing Projects Taken Up in Previous Reporting Periods
Sl	Project	Sponsor
Research
1	Air Pollution and Cause of Deaths in Hyderabad	GoI - Min.of Env.&Forests
2	Epidemology of Road Traffic Accidents	ICMR
Consultancy
1	Institutionalizing Mechanisms for Developing and Rolling Out Medium Term Expenditure Framework for Health in AP	Department of Health and Family Welfare, GoAP
2	Andhra Pradesh Yogadhyayna Parishad Systems and Procedures: Assessment and Documentation	APYP (GoAP)
3	Dev. of National health Accounts (NHA) Manual for India	WHO, India

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               Given the paucity of institutional mechanisms to develop public health manpower with multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary skills, and our long term objective to develop a college of public health, the Institute has striven to consolidate its efforts in public health capacity building and developing a masters level programme in public health. The Advanced Studies in Public Health programme builds on the Institute's past work and represents our future aspirations for improved public health capacity in the country. The program aims to create deeply committed public health professionals, well equipped with essential public health competencies in such areas as health care management, policy analysis and health systems research. We sought affiliation from the NTRUHS to offer the same as a Masters in Public Health programme. The University has granted provisional affiliation and has included the course under the purview of the Board of Studies for paramedical courses. The Institute supported the University in preparing the statutes for recognizing a school of public health and affiliating the Masters in Public Health Programme. The statutes have been approved by the Board of Studies and has received assent of the Chancellor of the University. Subsequently the Institute has requested the Government for permission to start the program. The Government has directed the University to conduct an inspection and certify our preparedness to offer the programme. Given our limited resources we had an understanding with LV Prasad Eye Institute, whose Chairman Dr. G.N Rao has graciously offered the use of LVPEI facilities at Kismetpur for the program. The Inspection committee of Dr NTR University of Health Sciences, recommended the case of the Institue and suggested for constitution of a separate board of studies for international courses. Accordingly, Govt has given permission in GOMs.No.173 dated 19-8-2009 to start Masters in Public Health (MPH). We are following up with the NTRUHS for ammendment of the Statute to incorporate certain errata and for constitution of the Board of Studies for International Courses. We hope to start the course in the next academic year with 15 candidates, as permitted by the Govt. Another positive development is that the state Government has allotted an extent of Ac16.00 in favor of Institute to build a world class College of Public Health and campus on payment of Rs 10.00 lakhs per acre. But there is a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) case before the Hon’ble High Court of AP. The Institute has approached a reputed advocate to represent its case. Advocate Sri Prakasha Reddy has kindly offerred to represent the IHS case, pro bono. The IHS has to bear the incidental costs and the fees of Junior Advocate Sri P.Radheev Reddy.

               Recognizing the success of the Institute’s Certificate in Health Intranet System Administration program, the State Board of Technical Education and Training (SBTET) have accredited the IHS for an Advanced Diploma course in Health System Informatics (ADHSI). This is a full time, 18 months course. The course consists of three semesters, two semesters each of 3 months duration and third phase comprising of an internship of one year. The third phase is devoted to a stipendiary internship and guided on the job training in appropriate organizations. We have deferred offering of the program in view of infrastructure constraints.

               While training services continue to be a core area of activity of the Institute’s long term plans, we have deferred taking up training programmes for the time being. Training services require additional financial supplementation. Further, our infrastructure and human resources are committed to the research and consultancy projects in hand.

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1. Public Health Laboratory: Since, March 2004, the Institute is monitoring water quality at various points of water distribution system operated by the HMWSSB. These include mostly testing for residential chlorine and bacteriological contamination tests on water samples collected at reservoir points, tanker collection points, selected slum area, eateries and restaurants. IHS personnel also records their observations during the course of their sample collection, that could impact on water quality such as water leakages, damages to the distribution pipes, sewerage overflows with exact addresses and informs the HMWSSB for corretion. Focus Group Discussions (FGD) are also being conducted in one or two randomly selected slums in a week to educate the residents about good hygiene practices and mesures to prevent water contamination. Daily and monthly reports are furnished to the Metro Water Board (HMWSSB). In addition the laboratory is also collaborating with other research institutions by providing water quality testing services. Water quality testing services are also made available to general public. An overview of revenue from water quality laboratory services is in Annex-9. The laboratory has significantly increased its output and has also been a major source of revenue for the Institute under public services. However, most of our revenue has come from sponsored projects. We are trying to publicize the IHS Water Quality Testing Services among general public, to improve access to our services.

2. Library: The IHS has made concerted efforts to build its library services to support the Institutes academic programmes and serve the wider community with state of the art literature on various aspects of public health. However, in recent years the scope for proactive acquisition of bibliographic resources has been limited due to financial constraints. In addition, lack of space and a full time librarian is a key constraint in developing the library services.

3. AP Health Institutions Database (APHIDB): We continued to maintain the database of Health Care Institutions (HCIs) in AP. Currently the database contains basic identifying information about 20,016 HCIs in the public, private for profit and nonprofit sector. The database is being updated whenever we get a chance of getting required information during the course of our research or consultancy. For example, the date and year of establishement of Primary Health Centers in Andhra Pradesh were updated to conduct sampling process which are atlest 5 years old as the criteria in Doctor Avaialbility Study.

                   List of IHS publications in the reporting year are given in Annexure-10. List of publications and presentations arising out of work at IHS or IHS personnel are in Annex-11.