After their first visit to Pakistan in November 2021, seven research team members from Friedrich-Alexander-University (FAU) and the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health (HIGH) returned to Pakistan between May 17th and June 10th, 2022. Their goal was to meet the research consortium members of Khyber Medical University (KMU) as well as the key stakeholders of SHPI Phase 2, and hold a dissemination workshop to present the findings of the first wave of data collection. The trip allowed the research team to make relevant progress on the research.
Their stay started in Islamabad, where the team attended several meetings with local partners and stakeholders between May 17th and May 22nd . This allowed everyone to meet in person and discuss the current status of the work. On May 24th, the researchers also had the opportunity to attend a workshop by the SHPI implementor m4h, during which m4h presented the concept of the outpatient services (OPD) insurance scheme which will be launched in the beginning of next year.
After one week in Islamabad, the research team moved to Peshawar, where they spent the rest of their visit. The following days were used to jointly work on the needs assessment report across working groups and organize the dissemination workshop which took place on June 1st. You can read more about this great event here. While some team members returned to Germany after the workshop, the provider panel working group stayed to train the enumerators for their first wave of data collection as well as to conduct the first pilot interviews.
Overall, the German side of the team really appreciated their stay in Peshawar, as it was the first time that they saw the KMU campus in person. Also, this gave them the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the health system of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) through a visit the Teshil Headquarter Takht Bhai, a public secondary facility in Mardan.
The research trip benefitted the whole research team, both from a working and an interpersonal perspective, allowing the group to enhance collaboration among team members and make good progress on their work. The German team would like to express their gratitude for the hospitality received from the KMU team and all the Pakistani colleagues, and is now looking forward to the upcoming visit of the Pakistani team to Germany.
