Abhijit Chowdhury

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Dr. Abhijit Chowdhury (born 1959) is a liver disease specialist by training and profession. He is a widely known as a healthcare organizer and public health activist. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/7TH_KOLKATA_LIVER_MEETING.jpg

He has been involved in social activism working for health care equity for people living in social and economic margins in India. He has been called ‘a modern day hero’ by 2019 Economics Nobel Laureate Abhijit V Banerjee. (1) Chowdhury leads the NGO Liver Foundation, West Bengal that works in West Bengal and other Indian states, striving to bring scientific progress closer to the outliers in healthcare access, through programs and development of contextually responsive healthcare establishments. (2)

Early life and education

Born in Nagari village in Birbhum of West Bengal, India in 1959, Abhijit Chowdhury was educated in Nagari High School. He received his MBBS degree in 1983 from the North Bengal Medical College, India. He then finished his training in Medicine (MD) and Gastroenterology (DM) at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India after that. (3) He later received research laboratory training at the Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, USA in 2000 and was a distinguished visiting fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, USA in 2015. (Ibid) At present, Chowdhury is a Professor of Liver Disease at the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER) at SSKM hospital, Kolkata, where he is chair of the Hepatology Department. (Ibid) Dr. Chowdhury has been awarded Fellowships of the National Academy of Sciences, India (FNASc) in 2009 and Indian National Science Academy (FNA) in 2014, the two apex Indian science bodies. (4) He also has authored more than a hundred research papers in public health and liver diseases.

Liver Foundation and IILDS

Liver Foundation, West Bengal was established in 2006 by some medical professionals in the state, including Dr. Chowdhury. The organization allowed Dr. Chowdhury to translate his ideas on equitable healthcare access and rural health systems into action. He has been associated with the development of Indian Institute of Liver and Digestive Sciences (IILDS) at Sonarpur (www.iilds.in) as an apex care giving, research and academic body with state-of-the-art-facilities in India through ‘Absolute Philanthropic Support’ from corporates and individuals in India and abroad (5). IILDS, envisaged as a “third sector” healthcare initiative beyond mainstream public and corporate healthcare endeavors, has been described more as an effort for socially sensitive and contextually useful healthcare provisions in areas with very limited access to any. (6, 7)

Other endeavors

Chowdhury at present, is also the project director of Birbhum Population Project (BIRPOP), a population health and demographic research initiative of the Government of West Bengal. (8) Dr. Chowdhury’s efforts have also seen initiatives towards developing a scientific and accessible rural healthcare model. His work on training informal healthcare workers has been translated into policy in West Bengal health systems, generating considerable interest and controversy. (9, 10, 11, 12)

References

1. Kim Starkey Jonker, 2019. Nobel Prize Recipient , Abhijit Banerjee , reflects on leadership in the social sector. Forbes. Available from : https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimjonker/2019/12/09/2019-nobel-prize-recipient-abhijit-banerjee-reflects-on-leadership-in-the-social-sector/#4005a25d2eac. 2. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/liver-foundations-tryst-with-nobel-winner-abhijit-banerjee/articleshow/71608426.cms?utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign 3. Profile, Indepth Network. Available : http://www.indepth-network.org/prof-abhijit-chowdhury 4. INSA Fellows. Available: http://insaindia.res.in/disp2.php 5. Indian Institute of Liver and Digestive Sciences. Available from: www.iilds.in 6. K P Nayar . Diplomacy Tonic for Liver care . The Telegraph . February27, 2016 . 7. Times News Network , Bengal gets its’ first exclusive liver Hospital in Sonarpur . Times of India (Kolkata) December28th , 2016 . 8. Birbhum Population Project. Available from: http://www.shds.co.in/about-birpop/ 9. Jishnu Das, Abhijit Chowdhury, Reshmaan Hussam, Abhijit V. Banerjee . The impact of training informal health care providers in India: A randomized controlled trial . Science . 7 OCTOBER 2016 • VOL 354 ISSUE 6308 10. Priyanka Pulla . Are India’s quacks the answer to its shortage of doctors? BMJ 2016;352:i291 doi: 10.1136/bmj.i291 (Published 21 January 2016) . 11. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-45038060/can-india-s-quack-doctors-be-trained-in-100-hours 12. India's quack doctors get licence to treat https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/indias-quack-doctors-get-licence-to-treat?&utm_source=whatsapp&utm_medium=social-media&utm_campaign=addtoany

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