The 2nd Annual South Asian Healthcare Leadership Forum took place on December 4th- 5th, 2015, at Gordon Hall at Harvard Medical School. With an emphasis on building leadership skills, fostering a sense of community, and mobilizing resources toward distinct initiatives, SAHLF 2015, cosposnored by the Harvard South Asia Institute, featured a diverse and highly accomplished group of attendees. There were over 70 participants, including CEOs, venture capitalists, clinicians, academics and policymakers.
The conference began with keynote speeches from Dr. Ram Raju, CEO of New York City Hospitals, and Dr. Rainu Kaushal, Department Chair of Health Policy and Research at Weill Cornell Medical College, on lessons of leadership from their personal experiences. Dr. Ashish Jha then shifted the conversation toward global impact in South Asia, imparting advice from his role as Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. This set the stage for the presentation from the Paul Farmer Global Surgery Research Fellows, Dr. Nakul Raykar and Dr. Swagoto Mukhopadhyay. The presentation focused on their work in India to date, and looked forward to future directions and their conference in New Delhi (March, 2016).
SAHLF’s goal is to bring together and organize the growing South Asian health care leadership community, and develop a collective agenda for what the community can execute together. They believe the inter-generational connections and strong community fostered by SAHLF 2015 will be beneficial for future global impact efforts in South Asia.