South-East Asia Regional Conference on Epidemiology

324 | <strong>South</strong>-<strong>East</strong> <strong>Asia</strong> <strong>Regional</strong> <strong>Conference</strong> on Epidemiology
How can epidemiology help?
Epidemiologists help the management as they look at indicators for setting goals and targets and to
monitor and evaluate. However, they can also assist leadership in health (Fig.6). First, epidemiology
can help in creating a shared vision. Secondly, epidemiologists should not work only with a single
disease but with a cluster of diseases like noncommunicable diseases or vector-borne diseases which
Figure 6: Epidemiology and leadership connection
may have lifestyle or vectors as a major cause. Rather than just addressing epidemiology of malaria,
one could also address chikungunya, dengue, etc., to create a shared vision. From a single disease
focus, epidemiologists need to move to a whole set of diseases which may have some commonality, a
common cause or a common transmission agent. This would not only assist in taking care of a shared
vision and assessing vision-reality gap but also inventing new paths by identifying commonality
among a set of diseases. For instance, hand washing can address H1N1 but hand washing also prevents
diarrhoea and some other diseases. One needs to communicate the results not only to professionals
but also to stakeholders so that they are empowered and inspired to act. This again is a challenge.
For instance, communicating the risk of H1N1 to people was a big challenge. One has to learn the
language which people will understand and would act upon to improve their health.
In summary, there is a need to strengthen strategic leadership at all levels – top, middle and grass
roots. However, leadership development is not easy. The commercial sector puts in a lot of effort for
leadership development.. Health sector also needs to do so. A blended approach is needed for leadership
development which should include training, mentoring, coaching, on-the-job support, exchange and
networking. This is not easy and that may be the reason why progress in leadership development in
the health sector is slow. It is a challenge to move from ‘business as usual’ to ‘accelerated progress
paradigm’, which needs to be addressed so as to have a healthy future for all people.