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health as well as in other
departments like rural development, tribal welfare
and information technology. His commitment to social
justice and rural development was evident early in
his career. While working as a Sub collector, he
came across the practice of bonded labour still
prevalent in Irakam island in the year 1983, i.e.
nearly a decade after the bonded labour abolition
act was passed. He camped in the island till
investigation and trial of all cases under the
bonded labour act was completed, release
certificates issued and the offenders appropriately
dealt under the law. He continued to follow up the
released families, despite the administrative
changes in his posting, for five years till the
released families were fully rehabilitated. He
contributed to revival of cooperative farming
societies in Nellore district, mainly to benefit
large number of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe
families.
He was the first registrar of the
first University of Health Sciences (APUHS) in
India, Director of Medical Education, Commissioner
of Medical Services, Additional Secretary Health in
government of Andhra Pradesh. He has tenaciously
pursued excellence in each of these positions. Two
of his many contributions in the field of health
stand out as extraordinary and well beyond the
ordinary call of his duties. These are; (a) the
health system development projects in the country,
and (b) visualization and building of the Institute
of Health Systems (IHS).
Dr. Mahapatra is a pioneer in the
field of Health Systems Development. In the post
Alma Ata era, primary health care was erroneously
confused with primary health centres and sub centres
alone. So much so that any form of health system
development involving hospitals was taboo. In this
policy environment, he drew attention of policy
makers to first referral hospital services,
recognized its importance in primary health care and
argued for substantial increase of investments in
middle level hospitals. While commissioner of Andhra
Pradesh Vaidya Vidhana Parishad (APVVP) he developed
the Health Systems Development Project in AP. There
after he spent two years researching in Harvard
University about measurement of public hospital
performance and allocation of government health
expenditure among primary, secondary and tertiary
health care institutions. Results of his research
contributed to positive evaluation of the health
system development project proposal, by the World
Bank. Government of India Ministry of Health
circulated the Andhra Pradesh health system
development project idea among other state
governments for their consideration. Dr. Prasanta
Mahapatra’s vision about the need and importance
of health systems strengthening during the late 80s
and early 90s has today resulted in Health Systems
Development projects in about seven states involving
combined investments of about 4000 crore rupees. A
study on Hospital Autonomy in India, in which the
APVVP was taken as a case study, has attributed the
success of its establishment to the leadership of
Dr. Mahapatra when he was commissioner, APVVP. The
strong foundation laid by Dr. Mahapatra
evolved the first referral hospitals in AP to its
present stage.
Institute of Health Systems (IHS), is
primarily the brainchild of Dr. Mahapatra. As early
as the 1980s he recognized the importance of health
system research to generate required evidence and
information for health policy. The Institute was set
up in 1990, by him and a group of like minded
persons in Hyderabad, with varied background but a
common interest in improvement of the country’s
health status. Dr. Mahapatra’s farsightedness can
be judged from the fact that the World Health
Organisation launched its program on evidence and
information for policy around the year 2000 and has
an active program to improve health system
performance. The IHS is unique in many respects.
It’s multidisciplinary approach to study of health
sector problems seeks to harness the skills from
different areas to improve the efficacy of the
health sector. This non profit Institution is run on
self financing basis and does not receive any grant
in aid. The IHS generates its funds through its
research, training and consultant activities. In a
short span of 12 years since its inception, the
Institute has developed to be one of the largest
health system research institutions in the world,
and promises to be a leading school of public health
in the country. The phenomenal growth and
development of the IHS is primarily due to Dr.
Mahapatra’s sustained commitment, dynamic and
proficient guidance. To realize his dream of a such
an Institution, Dr. Mahapatra, spent about six years
of his career to prepare himself to provide the
required academic guidance. Towards this end, he
joined, in 1994, the Ph.D. degree program in public
health policy and economics, in the Harvard
University and earned the degree in 2000. He has
already committed five years of his career, working
full time in the IHS as its Director, on deputation
from his civil service position, to build up the
Institution. Today, the IHS is recognized as a
premier centre of health system research in India as
well as the South and East Asian Region. The IHS is
the only centre in the South and East Asian region
with substantial expertise in national burden of
disease studies. Recognising this, the Indian
Council of Medical Research (ICMR) chose the
Institute to train its scientists in burden of
disease study methodology and research on causes of
death. The Institute’s research capacity has been
utilised by the state government of Andhra Pradesh
and the Central Government. For example; IHS was
commissioned by the Government of India Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare to estimate burden of
disease among women and children in India, and to
study the dynamics of private health sector. The
Institute has been commissioned by the Government of
Andhra Pradesh to assist in development of health
sector strategy and preparation of action plan for
reproductive health services and sector reform.
Dr. Mahapatra’s contribution
as a member of WHO committee of experts on
measurement and classification for health and as
part of Harvard Burden of Disease unit is widely
acknowledged. He worked on estimation of burden of
disease in AP and has trained a large cadre of
individuals in this methodology. He has many
publications in National and International
journals, in the area of Burden of disease, Public
Health, Cause of Death, Hospital performance
analysis, private heath sector, rural development,
information technology, modernisation of
administration, etc. He has been actively involved
in policy making at the international, national
and state levels. He has also been consultant and
advisor for WHO on various issues.
As mentioned earlier he
maintained his unbiased contribution to all his
fields of study. Dr. Mahapatra continues to work
with vigor to realize the Vision set for I H S. Dr.
Mahapatra is currently the President of IHS,
Hyderabad.
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