The purpose of this national/international award is to recognize individuals and organizational teams from a variety of disciplines who have made a substantial contribution to advancing the knowledge base aimed at improving the health of women, children and families. Because this is an MCH Epidemiology award, preference is given to those whose focus is applied or those whose focus has contributed to the advancement of applied work in one or more of the following ways: engagement in creating new data systems, development of new methods for measurement or analysis, generation of new information (based on data from a variety of sources whether it be surveillance systems, evaluation data or primary data collection methods), or development of new conceptual frameworks.
It is expected that the new knowledge contributed by the awardee has led the MCH field to consider new approaches and or discover new findings related to an MCH problem. Evidence of whether an individual has advanced knowledge is best assessed through publications in the peer-reviewed literature but can also include technical reports, Institute of Medicine type syntheses, books, book chapters and/or creation of surveillance systems and learning tools that are widely disseminated.
Dr. Joseph received his MBBS and MD degrees from Christian Medical College, Vellore, India, and a PhD in epidemiology from McGill University, Montreal. His research interests include pregnancy complications, preterm birth, fetal growth, perinatal and infant mortality and serious neonatal morbidity.