September 29, 2015: The global premier of the documentary based on Sania Nishtar’s book, “Choked Pipes” and her work subsequent to that in Pakistan, was held in New York on September 22 as a side session of the United Nations’ 70^th General Assembly. The event was hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation and was oversubscribed. The screening of the documentary was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Michael Myers, Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation. Panelists included Prof. Linda Fried, Dean of the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health; Nata Manabde, Executive Director of the WHO office at the UN headquarters in New York; Director of the film, Randall Wright and Sania Nishtar. The documentary highlights an alternative third health systems model, which along with the existing Beveridge and Bismarck systems can help achieve Universal Health Coverage in Mixed Health Systems. Prof. Fried referred to the model as a ‘stealth reform’ in terms of its ability, both to provide universal health coverage as well as overcome existing distortions of mixed health systems. Complete Documentary video link

 The global premier of the documentary based on Sania Nishtar’s book, “Choked Pipes” and her work subsequent to that in Pakistan, was held in New York on September 22 as a side session of the United Nations’ 70th General Assembly

Dr Sania Nishtar resumes her role at Heartfile

September 28, 2015: The World Bank hosted the Pandemic Financing Stakeholders Meeting in Washington on September 21 and 22, 2015. The meeting was convened “to examine options for strengthening global financing for pandemics to help countries and global partners respond more effectively to disease outbreaks”. The meeting considered a range of existing and new instruments for financing pandemic response and its discussions are meant to feed into the UNSG’s High-Level Panel and other ongoing reviews of the global pandemic financing and response. Our President, Dr Sania Nishtar gave the opening speech on the “Current State of Global Financing for Pandemic Response – Overview and Gaps” at the event.

Dr Sania Nishtar gave the opening speech on the “Current State of Global Financing for Pandemic Response – Overview and Gaps” at the Pandemic Financing Stakeholders Meeting in Washington hosted by The World Bank on September 21 and 22, 2015.

September 18, 2015: A sneak preview of the documentary based on our President, Sania Nishtar’s Oxford University Press-published book Choked Pipes, was held at the Royal Society of Medicine in London on September 11, 2015. The ‘sneak preview’ was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Andrew Jack from Financial Times. The panel included Prof. Sir Andy Haines, Prof. Martin McKee of European Public Health London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Joseph Kutzin, Co-ordinator of Health Systems Financing, and our President Dr.Sania Nishtar of Heartfile. As described by Rockhopper TV, the creators of the documentary, “In this landmark documentary, Dr Sania Nishtar—one of the leaders of a new movement in Global Health proposing the reform of entire health systems—leads award-winning director Randall Wright on a journey through the health system of her native Pakistan, where 73% of the population have no financial health coverage”. The documentary has been made by Rockhopper TV, who have been involved in making award-winning broadcast documentaries, for TV channels as diverse as the BBC, PBS, Showtime, ITV, Discovery, National Geographic and national broadcasters around the world.Click here to view the Trailer

A sneak preview of the documentary based on our President, Sania Nishtar’s Oxford University Press-published book Choked Pipes

September 4, 2015: Dr. Saba Amjad represented Heartfile at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Organization (EMRO) at the recent civil society meeting on the prevention of NCDs in Cairo, Egypt, which was held on September 1-2. The meeting was organized to strengthen partnerships with Civil Society Organization.  Co-organized with the NCD Alliance, the meeting was attended by representatives of CSOs from 12 countries. The key objectives of the meeting were to review the current capacity of Regional NCDs, CSOs, NGOs and their contribution to the Regional NCD agenda. At the meeting the NCD Alliance NGOs, and CSOs discussed collaborations with WHO to create synergies for kick-starting and strengthening the CSO movement in the NCD area at the national and regional levels. The NCD Alliance and representatives identified ways to catalyze the development of a regional civil society network for prevention and control of non-communicable diseases.