Sunday Times 2
‘MSF Scientific Days Asia 2025’ on Friday
View(s):The ‘MSF Scientific Days Asia 2025’ conference scheduled to take place in Sri Lanka next Friday, September 19, at the Galadari Hotel in Colombo, will be different from the norm.
Organised by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF/Doctors Without Borders), on the theme ‘Co-Creating Health: Listening, Learning, Leading: Community Voices in Healthcare Innovation’, this globally-recognised platform brings together researchers, practitioners, policymakers and community voices.
While discussing urgent health challenges and humanitarian solutions, this year’s focus is on bridging research with lived realities to ensure that patient and community voices stand alongside academic and policy perspectives.
Dr Sevantee Ghosh
The spotlight will be on pressing regional issues such as climate change; antimicrobial resistance; neglected tropical diseases; sexual and reproductive health; mental health; and the impact of conflict on healthcare systems. This is to bring about collaborative medical engagement, advocacy and action.
MSF will introduce an ‘Exhibition Component’ where complex research findings will be put forth in easy-to-understand narratives, large-scale photographs, short films, testimonies and visual installations including interactive digital presentations. This is to ‘humanise’ data and bring out the patient and survivor stories, making their perspectives central to the healthcare discourse.
“At MSF, we believe communities are not passive recipients of healthcare but essential partners in co-creating and shaping it. By centring the lived experiences of patients and frontline responders, we aim to bridge the gap between policy and practice and catalyse collective action on pressing health challenges – from quality of care and healthcare in crisis settings to community engagement models and health workforce management,” said MSF South Asia’s Strategic Medical Lead, Dr Sevantee Ghosh.
She said that this year’s unique exhibition element will humanise research and data, “reminding us that behind every statistic lies a story of struggle, hope and resilience”. The vision is to create a platform where science, medicine, creativity and humanity converge.
This conference is timely for Sri Lanka as it continues to navigate post-crisis healthcare challenges.
The academic partner of the conference is the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, and the community collaborator is the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri Lanka.
MSF is an international medical humanitarian organisation which provides medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters or exclusion from healthcare. Its reach spans across 70 countries, mainly in crisis-affected zones and regions battered by disasters and emergencies.