Our Team

IIHMR Bangalore

Dr. Usha Manjunath

Dr. Usha Manjunath

Professor – Director

Brief

Dr. Usha Manjunath is a Professor and the Director at IIHMR Bangalore. Her education includes M.Sc. Speech & Hearing from AIISH, Mysore, and M.Phil. (Hospital and Health System Management) and PhD. in Management from BITS, Pilani. She holds a certificate on ‘Strategic Leadership and Management in Healthcare’ 2012 by IIHMR, Delhi, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She was trained in Implementing NABH Standards for Hospitals in June 2019 by the NABH/Quality Council of India.

Dr. Usha has a unique experience in allied health/disability, communication, entrepreneurship, and general health system management research/academics. She has 13 years of experience as a Speech and Audiology professional with a Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) in Speech Pathology from ASHA, USA (1990). During these years, she worked in various organisations, including NGOs, Schools, and Hospitals in India and USA. Speech Therapy and Deaf Children’s Education form the core of her contributions. In 1999, she made a career change and joined BITS, Pilani, Rajasthan, as a teaching faculty in management which propelled her into academics/higher education, and pursued her passion for healthcare further. She joined IIHMR Bangalore in 2010 and is a dynamic leader backed by her long unique experience in academics/teaching, consultancy & research projects, training & capacity building, and community/social development work with a special focus on health system management. Her competencies include healthcare delivery system analysis, social mobilization, SBCC/IEC, communication, management principles, organisation behaviour, marketing, HRM, quality, and strategy. She is adept at training and undertaking MDPs for different stakeholders in her area of expertise, using a variety of platforms: live-physical, online, and hybrid modalities.

Dr. Usha’s research includes Total Quality Service Management Model for Healthcare, Nutrition Health-life cycle Approach, IEC pre-testing, MCH, WASH, Women Empowerment, Health, Stress Management etc. Her research strengths are in fieldwork, mixed methodology approach for field and organisation research, writing of reports, manuscripts, research briefs, and content writing, etc. Research projects completed include those funded by GoI, GoK, ICMR, Unicef, WHO, Alive & Thrive, Deaf Child Worldwide – UK, HCL Foundation, United Way India, BDT School for the Deaf, and others. Her Consultancy projects include: Impact Evaluation of Primary School Education project by APD in four districts of Karnataka supported by DCW; Market Research for Ophthalmic Products – BIRAC Project by a private Ophthalmology group in Bangalore; Strategy and Future directions for BDT Deaf School in Laxmeshwar, Gadag; Impact of COVID 19 on Health and Nutritional Status among Young Children: A Qualitative Study in Selected Anganwadi Centres in Bengaluru Urban.

Dr. Usha has published widely in National and International Journals and print-/e-media. She has published a book, “Total Quality in Healthcare-An Empirical Investigation”, 2012 by Rawat Publications based on her PhD. thesis supported by an ICSSR grant. Endowed with excellent communication and documentation skills, she was conferred an Outstanding Editor Award by AIMS, International in 2012. She was awarded the “Bharat Rathna Indira Gandhi Gold Medal Award” – for Excellence by GEPRA, New Delhi on March 8th, 2018.

She likes to volunteer whenever time permits and is humbled by her role of social responsibility in mobilising and supporting Global Grant applications to Rotary International and Local Rotary Club (Matching Grant) for BDT Deaf School for strengthening education through technology including Hearing Aids, Audio-visual Lab, Smart Classrooms, Audiometry Set Up, and STEM Mini Lab.