Bangladesh Health Watch (BHW) has launched a repository of Covid-19 research related to Bangladesh to bring all the public health research conducted under one umbrella.
The organization officially launched the repository, which will be updated on a regular basis on Wednesday, in a virtual discussion.
A technical team led by Prof Syed Masud Ahmed, director of the Centre of Excellence for Health Systems and Universal Health Coverage, BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health and member of Bangladesh Health Watch’s Advisory Group have developed this respiratory consisting 354 research papers.
Prof Vincent Chang, vice chancellor (VC) of BRAC University, was the Chief Guest at the program.
Prof Chang said: “The repository will open more research opportunities. Research is important for the country’s economic growth, knowledge economy and for the career of academics. Bangladesh needs a big push for research. This repository will be helpful as a small push and it will have a huge impact.”
Emphasizing on peer review of the existing publications, Dr Rounaq Jahan, distinguished fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue and chair of the Advisory Group of BHW, said: “Finding the relevant literature while undertaking a research is a difficult task. This repository will make this task easier.”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, a large volume of research has been conducted in Bangladesh by researchers both at home and abroad but this knowledge is scattered all over the place, experts said in the discussion.
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Dr Sabina Faiz Rashid, dean and professor of BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, said: “We have to create a research culture in this country. Researchers struggle with literature review. This repository will make their work easier. We need to engage young students and researchers with this kind of initiative so that they develop interest in research.”
Praising the initiative which will provide a platform to young researchers to publish their work and encourage the practice of peer review, Manik Mahmud, head of Social Innovation and Operation Cluster, A2i, ICT Division of the government, said: “Volunteers have better access to people. They can reach out to commoners with key messages extracted from the research articles. This repository will be a great hub of knowledge for them.”
The repository currently hosts papers ranging from examining the practice of infection prevention policies and guidelines, association of coronavirus mortality with demographics, testing, lockdowns, public wearing of masks, link between obesity and death from Covid-19, fear and stigma associated with the disease, mental health, and many more.
The articles can be accessed from https://r.bangladeshhealthwatch.org/
Published articles were collected from PubMed, Scopus, LitCovid (PubMed) database and emails from individuals.
The discussion was organized by BHW along with A2i, Bloodman and EMK Centre.