Dr Leela Paudel received her Doctor of Medicine (M.D) in Community Medicine from the Kathmandu Medical College, Kathmandu University, Nepal in 2018. Dr Paudel joined Department of Community Medicine, Lumbini Medical College and Teaching Hospital, Palpa, Nepal as a lecturer for a year. She was actively involved in both academic and community-based Research. She is currently working as a lecturer in Department of Community Medicine in Nepalese Army Institute of Health Science since October 2019. She is a young and energetic doctor with good knowledge of Community Medicine and Community-based Research. She has been invited in multiple domestic as well as international conference for oral/poster presentation on various research topic such as Occupational Health, Maternal and Child Health. She has a three-year (2015-2018) experience of working as supervisor for undergraduate students to conduct a research. She is also an active member of International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) since 2018 and executive member of Nepalese Society of Community Medicine (NESCOM) since 2020. She has published research article in peer reviewed journal. Her research interest includes investigation of various occupational diseases and exploring the common communicable disease through collaboration with hospital, government organization and conducting survey. Since COVID 19 pandemic she is actively involved in COVID-19 Preparedness Training and Response (trained more than 2000 health personnel) and she is a NHTC (National Health Training Center) certified trainer on COVID-19 Preparedness Training and Response. She is also working as a supervisor for case investigation and contact tracing and has involved in developing handbook on COVID-19. She is very passionate about serving society through her medical knowledge and research expertise.
Dr Nishchal Dhakal did his MBBS and MD in Community Medicine from Nepal Medical College, Kathmandu. Following his post graduation he is primarily involved in academics. He joined Nepal Medical College and till date is actively involved in teaching learning activities of undergraduate and postgraduate medical students. Besides teaching in the medical college he is also involved in academic management, where he assists in academic and examination planning and implementation. He is also involved in research activities. He is heavily involved in research design, data management and data analysis of faculties and postgraduate students of his medical college. Besides medical college his work domain also involves community engagement and assisting local governments in Kathmandu in advising on various health matters.
I am currently working at the Department of Community Medicine, Maharajgunj Medical Campus, Institute of Medicine, Maharajgunj as an Assistant Professor. I have a broad background in public health, with specific training and expertise in prison health, child health and cancer and survey research and secondary data analysis on cancer registry and Demographic and Health Survey. In addition, I successfully worked as head of the department in Cancer Prevention Control and Research, BP Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital as well as Member Secretary of Institutional Review Committee, collaborated with other researchers, and produced several peer-reviewed publications on cancer. I have also lead the Hospital-Based Cancer Registry Program as a secretary. Cancer registry program has been continued since 20 years in BPKMCH but I led research to document the history of the cancer registry in Nepal and its further analysis. My early publications were focused on prison inmates, their health status and risky behaviours such as substance abuse, suicidal behaviours etc., tuberculosis and depression prevalence in the prison. These publications not only document the problems in the prison but guide primary care providers and prison management to recognize symptoms, assess the nature of the problem and apply the necessary interventions. By providing evidence and simple clinical approaches, this body of work has changed the standards of care for prison population and will continue to provide assistance in relevant medical settings well into the future. During my early career in Child Health Division at Department of Health Services, I directly documented the initiation of free new born care program in Nepal and its effectiveness in various hospitals and demonstrated the need of this program in effective treatment of newborns in public hospitals. Also, I was involved with the team of expert in systematic analysis of the burden of sepsis in newborn and secondary data analysis of Nepal Demographic Health Survey 2016 to show the trend and determinants of childhood mortality and illnesses.
Puspanjali Adhikari completed her Doctor of Medicine in Community Medicine and Tropical Diseases from B.P.Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Nepal. She completed her Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery from B.P.Koirala Institute of Health Sciences. She has trained herself in research methodology and project evaluation through various training. She is currently coordinating a project on Rheumatic Heart Disease which is a collaborative effort between University of Washington and two Nepalese partner institutions (Manmohan Cardiothoracic, Vascular and Transplant Center, MCVTC; and Dhulikhel Hospital, DH).
