KATHMANDU: The Ninth National Summit of Health and Population Scientists began in the federal capital on Tuesday.

The event aims to compile health research, review them and prepare substantive policies and plans for the related sector.

Over 500 health researchers and scientists including those from the United States of America, Switzerland, and India are taking part in the Summit organized by the Nepal Health Research Council.

As said by Council member secretary Dr. Pradeep Gyawali, the event is included in the annual calendar of the Council since 2071 BS. The theme of the Ninth National Summit of Health and Population Scientists is – ‘Research for Health, Data, and Exploration for Implementation’ and it will see presentations on various topics.

There will be 121 poster presentations at the event followed by two-panel discussions and 10 parallel discussion sessions.

Inaugurating the Summit, National Planning Commission (NPC) Vice-Chair Dr. Min Bahadur Shrestha said issues of non-communicable diseases and mental health, climate change, declining birth rate, and unprecedented migrations are emerging challenges in the health sector, expressing his hope that the Summit would contribute to prioritizing these issues and assisting related researches.

NPC member Jaykant Raut shared that non-communicable diseases and pandemics were turning up as challenges for the entire human civilization, showing urgency for more and more research by the Council. He insisted on the significance of research in the formulation of policies and effective projects.

Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Population, Dr. Roshan Pokhrel advised the Council to focus on research projects as per the need of the nation to guide the formulation of appropriate policies and plans. He also pressed the need of prioritizing non-communicable diseases and mental health issues in the research.

Panel discussions on ‘health system and policy’, ‘clinical trial and bioethics ‘, ’emergency public health and changing issues’, and so on are scheduled to be held during the two-day Summit.