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Student Competition: Win a funded trip to Difficult Dialogues conference, Goa

25 October 2016

Students interested in health equity can win a trip to Difficult Dialogues – an annual forum examining issues of contemporary relevance in South Asia.

Difficult Dialogues logo…

UCL students with a keen interest in health equity can win a trip to the Difficult Dialogues conference in Goa next year.

Difficult Dialogues is an annual forum examining issues of contemporary relevance in South Asia.

The next conference, from 10-12 February, will see UCL partner with Difficult Dialogues to examine the grand challenge India faces in providing access to high quality healthcare for all its citizens.

It will explore the ambition of putting health into policy, to create ‘Health For All’.

UCL Masters (not taught), PhD or MBBS students can apply to report back from the forum and help raise its profile.

Using excellence to address inequality

How and what type of healthcare people access across India varies around the country. But there are numerous examples of excellence – models created and practiced in response to a range of challenges, urban and rural.

These respond to everything from a lack of trained health professionals, gender inequality, and social exclusion; to education, nutrition, and economic welfare.

From community-led health, to e-health technology and pharmaceutical innovation, Difficult Dialogues will consider India’s leadership role in both regional and global health.

The event will host intensive discussions between diverse stakeholders: from policy makers, academics and civil society, to politicians, representatives from media, business and international organisations, and rising young leaders. All discussions are managed to be respectful, factually accurate, and courageous.

Finding fair solutions

Monica Lakhanpaul, Professor of Integrated Child Health and Head of Population, Policy and Practice at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said: “Taking health in its widest sense, UCL works across disciplines and expertise to research both the physical and social drivers of ill health, and the factors that determine wellbeing. We translate and apply our knowledge with local and international partners.

"With our stakeholders, our aim is to identify best practice and health policies that are effective, economically efficient and, importantly, ethical and fair. This forum offers a brilliant opportunity for a UCL student to explore the concern for health beyond healthcare, to the social, political, economic and cultural factors that determine the health of a nation.”

How to apply

Applicants should submit a short abstract (around 500 words) detailing their interest related to health, ethics or development; describing a relevant area on which they have already started working or propose to in future.

They should also outline (250 words) how they would use social media and blogging to help raise the profile of the conference and its outputs.

The student chosen to attend will be asked to produce a brief summary (1-2 pages) of the event or an article in lay language for publication in BMJ India blogs and/or in a local of national newspaper partner.

The deadline for applications is 25 November 2016.

Please note attendance will be granted subject to the course director’s agreement.