Dr. Sudha Basnet and Dr. Koiral setting the parameters for KIOCH Oct 2017
Introducing Prof. Dr. Sudha Basnet
Dr. Sudha Basnet is a Professor of Paediatrics at Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicine, Kathmandu. She has worked as a medical doctor for 25 years and a paediatrician for the past 15 years in Nepal.
After graduating from Nilratan Sircar Medical College and Teaching Hospital in Kolkatta, India, she started her career as a medical doctor in Tansen Mission Hospital, Palpa, Nepal. The three and a half years spent in this institution enabled her to improve her clinical skills and understand the problems and challenges faced by Nepalese people with health problems. Her passion to serve Nepalese children was fulfilled when she joined the MD Paediatrics Program at the Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicine. She later joined the Department of Paediatrics in her alma mater and has been working there since 2003.
She is also interested in research and has been actively involved in the design, implementation, analyses and dissemination of two large randomized controlled trials on zinc as an adjunct treatment for pneumonia in young Nepalese children. The hospital based clinical trial on zinc for severe pneumonia in children, recognized as being scientifically rigorous and highly relevant for Nepal, formed the basis of her PhD study which she completed in 2016 from the University of Bergen, Norway. Currently she is one of the Principal investigators, responsible for coordinating a multicenter randomized clinical trial on zinc as adjuvant treatment for young infants across the three sites in Nepal and working in close collaboration with the partner institutes in India and Norway.
She has worked as a co-investigator of a field based study on zinc as adjunct treatment of pneumonia in young children and the principal investigator of a similar hospital based study in Nepal. She was actively involved in the design, implementation, analyses and dissemination of both these large randomized controlled trials.
Why is she involved in KIOCH?
‘Over the years, having worked as a paediatrician, I have seen the shift in the paradigm of health problems faced by Nepalese children. Affordable and subspecialty care of high quality is the need of the hour and a dream I wish to fulfill. I see KIOCH, with its vision and mission of reaching out to Nepalese children, as a means to realize my dream.’