Passion for Global Public Health

We talked to Pratik Bhatnagar , Gaurav Garg and Natasha Pillai from our Global Public Health team about their journey at IQVIA, what makes them proud about their job and how they see the role of Global Public Health in the future:

Pratik Bhatnagar:

When I came into IQVIA, not many of our stakeholders in Geneva - the nerve center for Global Public Health - knew about the extent of our work and scale in healthcare and in Global Public Health. In the last three years, we have drastically helped increase the awareness and the perception our Geneva HQ clients have of us.?We have pivoted to increasingly becoming strategic partners with many of the big Public Health Institutions; our presence at key events for Public Health, such as the World Health Assembly of the WHO and the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting at Davos hasn’t gone unnoticed.?We have leveraged this presence to build new relationships with executive leadership of our PH stakeholders; delivered on new engagements critical to our clients’ missions and have established the basis for long-term partnership with many of them. We are now increasingly seen as strategic partners to the Global Health Ecosystem and are now firmly embedded in it, with a lot of potential ahead of us.

Gaurav Garg:

I’m a newbie, or maybe not! I started at IQVIA as Associate Director, Global Public Health in February 2023 having transitioned from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. When I first came across this role last year, I was really intrigued by what IQVIA was setting out to do in Global Public Health by bringing together its global and in-country capabilities across Life Sciences and Public Health.?I came into the role looking for a new challenge, and I haven’t been disappointed! The last 6 months have been energizing and hectic in equal measure, no two days have been alike, and I’ve really enjoyed it.?

Natasha Pillai:

I started my journey at IQVIA leading patient-level advanced analytics Real World Evidence Programs. After discovering the incredible work our Public Health teams are involved in, I have sought out ways to apply my skills and knowledge to IQVIA’s Global Health partnerships. Growing up in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa at the height of the HIV pandemic, I saw firsthand the devastating impact inequity, stigma, poverty, and misinformation can have on health access and outcomes for people I cared for and cared deeply about. This motivated me to train as a Medical Doctor and in Public Health. At IQVIA I have been lucky enough to use my skills, passion, and expertise to contribute to initiatives that aim to improve population health.?

Pratik Bhatnagar:

I interact with some of the most knowledgeable experts there are, across the spectrum of healthcare and global health. Thus, when a client wants to dig deep in a particular technical issue, it isn’t always difficult to find the right person. Delivering Global Public Health is such a complex task, that our clients appreciate not only the technical depth we possess across a range of fields and topics, but also the breadth of practical and grounded experience across many of these, around the world, especially in LMICs, where we have teams operating in the same environment as our clients, experiencing the same issues they face. I have found that there is genuine interest in teams across IQVIA to help in the mission for achieving better health for everyone, equitably, no matter where they live. Knowing you can draw on a collective IQVIA experience is very important for me when I engage a key stakeholder in a Global Public Health Institution.

Gaurav Garg:

In my first 6 months, I’ve been struck by the energy, enterprise, spirit of collaboration and rigor which comes through consistently in efforts to move things forward and get things done. In the Global Public Health team, we’re constantly working with different internal teams, and I’ve been taken by the genuine interest and expertise in health equity and public health.?The whole of IQVIA is greater than the sum of its parts!

Natasha Pillai:

I work with incredible colleagues, who are not only supportive human beings, but also share my passion for contributing to improving healthcare and health equity. It’s busy, and there are grueling days, when we face the realities of a topic that affects people and communities so abjectly, but most often we find ways to pick each other up and have fun building innovative and sustainable solutions to solve some of the most difficult questions.

Pratik Bhatnagar:

I see IQVIA becoming a critical player in the Global Public Health Ecosystem, a leading voice from the private sector; convening and connecting multi-stakeholders; building partnerships; advancing fresh, actionable insights through Global Public Health Thought Leadership; driving key pieces of work important to the achievement of global health goals in an accelerated manner.?We are in a unique position of being able to connect to every part of the healthcare continuum, working with life sciences companies, to governments, global institutions, and NGOs. Our global scale, including our breadth and depth in every aspect of healthcare means that, if we set our ambitions right, we can help move the needle on many health challenges faced in LMICs. I see IQVIA as an accelerator for impact in Global Health.

Gaurav Garg:

To start off, public health is evolving in a big way. Access to healthcare is being shaped by many complex factors that go beyond the healthcare ecosystem – political and institutional, financial, social (education, economic, place of residence, gender), conflict and displacement, technology related and then there’s the impact of climate change on health outcomes. In my view, linear public health technical fixes are not going to work anymore. Also, countries – across the income spectrum, are taking greater control over their destinies and priorities, including those on health. Given that IQVIA’s wide range of capabilities and deep scientific and public health expertise runs across the healthcare ecosystem and from global to local, I believe we’re primed to play the role of a public health frontrunner in the years to come.?Not just as a service provider, but an agenda setter and impact generator.

Natasha Pillai:

IQVIA has deep expertise to support addressing Global Health challenges. Our capabilities include data, analytics, epidemiology, technology, and consulting services. For me the key role we need to play in the coming years is to help address the inequity in data representation for women and people of color in health care data and the solutions that are created and assessed based on this.

Due to climate change and the evolution of existing burdens on global health systems, these populations will be disproportionately be affected. Therefore, they need to be included and better represented in the development of solutions.