Maternal and perinatal Health Research collaboration, India MaatHRI 

Developing a peer-support intervention trial to improve post-discharge care and outcomes of preterm babies in rural Uganda (PREPare: PREterm Post-discharge Peer-support care)

Manisha is a Senior Epidemiologist and MRC Career Development Fellow at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU). She is a clinician by training and specialised in epidemiology and global population health research. 

Having research projects in India and Uganda, Manisha has established a UK-India collaborative platform for maternal and perinatal health research (called MaatHRI) and is currently using this platform to conduct large epidemiological studies to improve pregnancy care and outcomes of pregnant women with anaemia.

Her work in India is investigating the risk factors, outcomes and clinical characteristics of heart failure in pregnant women; examining the safety of induction and augmentation of labour in pregnant women with anaemia; examining the difference in coagulation parameters in pregnant women with and without anaemia; and estimating the incidence of selected severe pregnancy complications.

Manisha worked as an epidemiologist for the Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Death in the UK and the UK Obstetric Surveillance System. Her previous work analysed the characteristics of pregnant women who died and the risk factors for progression from severe morbidity to death among pregnant women in the UK. Manisha's research interests are in the areas of maternal and child health, quality of care and medical education.

Manisha was a Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust scholar at the University of Oxford during her DPhil. She was a scholar under the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars (FICRS) programme, National Institutes of Health, USA, and led a team to design a multicentre surveillance study on cardio-metabolic diseases in South Asia.

Manisha previously worked as a consultant for the National Polio Surveillance Project of the World Health Organisation as a Surveillance Medical Officer and State Routine Immunisation Officer in India. She has a MBBS degree from India, MSc in Global Health Science and DPhil in Public Health from University of Oxford, UK.