Vadu Rural Health Program

Dr. Sanjay Juvekar, an anthropologist by training, played a major role in establishing Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) at Vadu. In addition to this responsibility he was the Principal Investigator on various studies including IMVAC study on COPD in India in collaboration with the CRF, Pune and the Imperial College, London; Non- communicable diseases risk factor study; iShare; Health Equity Study supported by INDEPTH.

Currently, he is the Principal Investigator on studies including 'influenza disease burden in India' (IDBI study) in collaboration with NIV, ICMR, and CDC (USA); Study on Ayurveda and genomics supported by IGIB and Co- Investigator on Vaccine trials including Vaccine trial on rotavirus vaccine supported by Department of Biotechnology, India and PATH, USA. He was the Study Manager on aerosol measles vaccine trial supported by ICMR and WHO.

Prior to joining VRHP he has worked with the Foundation for Research in Community Health (FRCH) for 8 years in the field of Tuberculosis and behavioral sciences. He has mentored about 30 students in their research and field activities. VRHP as a research institute has developed under his leadership and guidance.His perseverance and determination has also helped in the development of the rural community in Vadu area. He strives towards establishing a transparent and ethical working environment within the institute.

Dr. Anand Kawade has 18 years of rich and varied experience in the Healthcare industry in India. He is involved in various vaccine trials at Vadu as an investigator. He also acts as the pediatric consultant at Shirdi Sai Baba Rural Hospital, Vadu. He has expertise in intensive and critical care for children and neonates. He has worked in multiple application domain areas such as child development, learning problems, immunization practices, infectious diseases, vaccinology.

Dr. Anand has completed his M. D (Pediatrics) in 1993 and D.C.H. (DIPLOMA IN CHILD HEALTH) in 1990 from Government Medical College, Nagpur-India. He has 13 years of experience of teaching Pediatrics in renowned institutes in India. His enthusiasm and zeal for research has enabled him to learn new techniques and develop his skills as a researcher in community health and more specific on child health.

As an ayurveda physician Dr. Bhushan wants to promote and maintain health and alleviate diseases. At present he is coordinating the Ayurgenomics Project at Vadu: (Integration of Ayurveda with Genomics for systems biology approach in predictive and personalized medicine) in collaboration with Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi. He is also involved in defining the Business Rules for data quality at Vadu HDSS and coordinating quality improvement inputs, processes and outputs of both fieldwork and data processing units. He also Coordinates Verbal Autopsy along with the surveillance activities.

He is a Bachelor of Ayurveda Medicine and Surgery and is pursuing diploma in Population Studies and Human Rights. Before joining Vadu he practiced Ayurveda in few private hospitals. He aims to conduct action oriented research studies on public health issues.

Coordinates the Influenza disease burden study and the HDSS activities in Vadu site

Dhiraj Agarwal coordinates and manages the activities of the Laboratories in Vadu and has contributed in development of state of art Research and Molecular laboratory at Vadu. He joined Vadu Rural Health Program in July 2007, after completing his Masters in "Health Sciences" from University of Pune in May 2007 and a Bachelors degree in "Applied Biotechnology" in 2005 and "Zoology" in 2004. Before joining Vadu he worked as a trainee with National Centre for Cell Sciences, Pune and Haffkine Biopharmaceutical, Pune. Currently he is pursuing PhD in "Human Metagenomics" from the University of Pune.

At Vadu, he manages the Laboratory for various clinical trial research studies (vaccine trials) such as Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP003a), HIB Vaccine trial, Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP 005), Measles Aerosol Project (MAP), BBIL/ROTA/021 Vaccine Project. Previously he was actively involved in "Iron fortification study" and also in "Iron Supplementation study (Sprinkles)". He was also involved in field based research studies at Vadu such as Health and Demographic Surveillance System from 2007 till date, SAGE study on ageing population in 2007 etc. in addition to Non-clinical research like Ayurgenomics, Influenza Disease Burden Surveillance study.

He is recipient of Young Scientist Travel Award from AGM (INDEPTH Network ) 2009 for the Abstract submitted and presented during the INDEPTH-AGM 2009.