Mrittika Barua
Assistant Professor & Deputy Director (CoE-Science of Implementation and Scale-up)
Centre of Excellence for Science of Implementation and Scale-Up (CoE-SISU)
Short Biography
Mrittika Barua is a mixed-method researcher who has experience of more than ten years in public health, broadly in infectious diseases (tuberculosis), climate change, sexual and reproductive health, and implementation research in Bangladesh. She is particularly interested in researching social and cultural aspects of diseases and the implications of these on health and living. Regarding implementation research, she has the experience and a prime interest in designing and improving interventions through studying barriers and facilitators of implementation strategies. She likes to use a gender lens and an intersectionality approach in her work. She teaches in the Master of Public Health programme and supervises students' thesis. She is currently leading the Centre of Implementation and Scale-up at BRAC-JPGSPH, which includes leading and managing projects under the centre, mentoring junior researchers, writing research proposals, and analyzing and presenting data to a larger audience through workshops, reports and publications in peer-reviewed journals. She is also the Co-Chair of the Institutional Review Board of BRAC-JPGSPH since February 2022. Besides being a reviewer for several international peer-reviewed journals, she participates in national and international workshops and conferences and continues to engage in publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Module(s) taught (in MPH)
- MPH 511: Qualitative Research Method
- MPH 520: Quantitative Research Methods
Current Projects
1. Project: Bangladesh health sector’s preparedness to fight against future pandemics: A qualitative exploration of existing scenarios and best practices for future readiness Donor: UNFPA Role: PI 2. Project: Qualitative assessment of barriers to female birth and death registration in Bangladesh Donor: Vital Strategies Role: PI (Local) (Partnership with Cabinet Division Bangladesh) 3. Project: Climate Change, Migration and Health Systems Resilience in some selected areas of Haiti and Bangladesh Donor: French National Research Agency) Role: Co-I (Partnership with IRD, France)
Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications
1. Barua, M., Chowdhury, S., Saha, A., Mia, C., Sajow, SH., & Sarkar, M. (2022). Community-based referral transportation system for accessing emergency obstetric services in the Rohingya refugee camp during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh: Facilitators and Barriers through beneficiaries’ and providers’ lens using a mixed-method design. BMC Conflict and Health. 16, 51. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-022-00485-7. 2. Sarker, M., Hossain, P., Ahmed, S., Barua, M., Sutradhar, I., & Ahmed, SM. (2022). A critical look at synergies and fragmentations of Universal Health Coverage, Global Health Security, and Health Promotion in delivery of frontline health care services: A case study of Bangladesh. The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia. 7, 100087, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lansea.2022.100087 3. Fahmi, R., Barua, M., Rizwan, A., Aarafat A.,, Jabbar, A., Rabbani, A., & Sarker, M. (2022) ‘I left my old self in the training session and came back with a new one’: Positive Behavioural Changes by addressing traditional gender norms through Sociodrama and Psychodrama among Young Male Participants living in an Urban Slum in Bangladesh. The Journal of Men’s Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/10608265221130510 4. Barua, M., Saha, A., Chowdhury, S., Sajow, SH., Sarker, M. (2022). Implementation of a community-based referral project to improve access to emergency obstetric and newborn care in Rohingya population during COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh’. BMJ Innovations. https://innovations.bmj.com/content/early/2022/05/23/bmjinnov-2021-000831 5. Berner-Rodoreda, A., McMahon, S., Eyal, N., Hossain, P., Rabbani, A., Barua, M., Sarker, M., Metta, E., Mmbaga, E., Leshabari, M., & Wikler. D. (2022). Consent Requirements for Testing Health Policies: An Intercontinental Comparison of Expert Opinions. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/15562646221076764 6. Barua, M. & Van Driel, F. (2021). Disciplining sexual and reproductive behaviour of tuberculosis patients in Bangladesh: a mixed method study exploring divergent messages. Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters. 29(2):1959258 7. Barua, M., Van Driel, F., & Jansen, W. (2018). ‘Tuberculosis and the Sexual and Reproductive Lives of Women in Bangladesh’. PLOS ONE 13 (7): e0201134. 8. Sarker, M., Homayra, F., Barua, M., Paul, S., Saha, A., Akter, R., Latif, A.H.M.M., Islam, S & lslam. A (2017). A Matched Case-Control Study to Identify Risk Determinants of Tuberculosis in Bangladesh’. GSTF Journal of Nursing and Health Care 5 (1): 11–16. 9. Sarker, M., Barua, M., Guerra, F., Saha, A., Aftab, A., Latif, AHMM., Islam, S., & Islam, A. 2016. ‘Double Trouble: Prevalence and Factors Associated with Tuberculosis and Diabetes Comorbidity in Bangladesh’. PLOS ONE 11 (10): e0165396. 10. Paul, S., Akter, R., Aftab, A., Khan, A., Barua, M, Islam, S., Islam, A., Husain, A., & Sarker, M. (2015). ‘Knowledge and Attitude of Key Community Members towards Tuberculosis: Mixed Method Study from BRAC TB Control Areas in Bangladesh’. BMC Public Health 15 (1): 52
Other Publications
Social distance is a privilege (2020). Prothom Ali. https://en.prothomalo.com/opinion/op-ed/social-distance-is-a-privilege
Awards
PhD grant by NUFFIC under the project "Developing TVET, HE and training on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) in the health and population sector in Bangladesh", 2014
Research Interests
Gender Implementation Research Infectious Disease Climate change
Education
- PhD (Radboud University Nijmegen
- Netherlands)
- MPH (BRAC University
- Bangladesh)
- BSc (Monash University
- Australia)