HDRF focuses on the following three areas:
Research
Conducting research in the health, education, social, and biological fields. HDRF has the expertise to implement all aspects of research, including proposal development, project management, field work, data management, analysis, and publication and dissemination of findings. Our current focus of research is in the area of Maternal and Child Health. We believe this area to be at the core of human development. Human Development Research Foundation has the following research themes under the domains of Implementation Research and Clinical Trials:
- Perinatal (mother & child) Public Health & Public Mental Health
- Early Childhood Development & Disorders including Autism
- Health Applications of Technology
- Mental Health in Humanitarian context
Education
Developing training materials, and conducting workshops and seminars for human service organizations and the public. We assist educational institutions in developing appropriate curricula and teaching methods for effective education. We have expertise in developing technology assisted training programmes based on m-health and e-health principles.
Service
Implementing research into action. We believe that research is of no use unless its benefits reach the population. We develop strategies to implement our evidence-based intervention programmes at District level and beyond, with a focus on resource-poor settings. We assist organizations in scaling-up of such programmes. Our local service targets children with intellectual and neuro-developmental disorders in Mandra and adjoining areas.
Health Applications of Technology Team
HDRF has a dedicated ‘Health Applications of Technology’ (HAT) team dedicated to exploring technological solutions to health challenges. It has software developers, graphic designers, and data management experts. HAT has in-house capacity for developing and maintaining complex technological systems, as well as data management systems.
HDRF is one of Pakistan's most research active non-profit organization. Over the last 15 years HDRF has been involved in conducting community based research with a special emphasis on health systems research, developing and testing contextually appropriate interventions for priority maternal and child health issues. HDRF has grown into a vibrant research and education community with 12 PhD scholars, 5 MS, MPhil, 25 Masters in its faculty.
In the 15 years of its existence the Foundation has emerged as a leading research institution in the country with over 60 publications in high impact international medical journals including the Lancet, JAMA and British Medical Journal. HDRF applies for competitive research grants and has won research grants from prestigious public health and medical research funders.
HDRF works in collaboration with major international academic partners including the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester in the UK, and Duke and Johns Hopkins Universities in the US. Nationally, the Foundation has MOU's signed with the Health Services Academy (Pakistan key feeder institution for health policy) and the Punjab & Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lady Health Workers Programme, and the Institute of Psychiatry, Rawalpindi.
HDRF's research has created impact: It conducted the largest randomised trial of a psychosocial intervention for perinatal depression (The Thinking Healthy Programme). The intervention has been adopted for global dissemination by the WHO. HDRF is one of the leading global site that has conducted a definitive trial of WHO Caregiver Skills Training program for children with Autism and developmental disorders.
The WHO has adopted these interventions for global dissemination. We adapted and integrated the UNICEF care for child development package to promote Maternal Psychosocial Wellbeing (MPW) and early child development in Lady Health Workers Program. As a global leader in psychosocial health research, HDRF brings a unique multi-disciplinary dimension and expertise to this project which is key to moving the field forward.
Punjab,
Pakistan
