Dr. Shilpy Singla

To gain experience and practical knowledge of working with some of the most vulnerable sections of society- particularly those who also suffer from the added disadvantages of social stigma and its attendant set of complications- both physical and social. To assume more responsibilities as a member of a team aiming at constant learning and improvement in delivery of better health services to disadvantaged, stigmatized groups, while utilizing my education and work experience in medical and health care delivery administration sectors.

Medical Experience: Taking appropriate history/ examination and diagnosing patients in the outpatient department. Managing indoor patients, including sick patients. Counselling and educating patients, relatives and community health care providers. Competent in peripheral and central Veinous Insertion. Competent in Neonatal and Pediatric intubations. Competent in managing Pediatric emergencies. Assisted in Pediatric Upper GI endoscopies and Sigmoidoscopies for 1 year during PG residency. Experience of working in a hierarchy, as a team. I worked in particular with neonatal units, including neonatal ICUs. Also, provided routine care and breastfeeding/immunisation/other counselling to the neonates in the follow up clinics. Organizing and attending seminars on good nutrition, hygiene, and community health. Pharmaceuticals Experience: Identifying newer molecules following market analyses; drugs available in the market and drugs under approval/registration process by competitors. Writing and editing documents pertaining to drug permissions, regulatory approvals and clinical trials. Undertaking clinical audits for Bioequivalence studies. Healthcare Delivery: Providing technical inputs for implementation of overall programs. Devising strategies and work plans for implementation partners. Preparing Financial Budgets as per program requirements. Interacting with the target communities and understanding their needs- utilising their feedback to improvise programs. Supporting MIS tools development by providing programmatic critical inputs. Participating in various conferences, working group meetings and sharing information about GFATM programs on those platforms. Liaising with various stakeholders- both public and private. Conducting monitoring visits at implementation sites and providing timely feedback & technical inputs. Helping the team develop program proposals for next grant cycle. Ensuring convergence amongst various teams & programs of the organisation, particularly at the field/delivery level.

• I joined Plan International (India chapter) in November 2022 as Technical Lead- in assisting role to a senior manager for two Global Fund supported programs,i.e. One Stop Centre program and Community Systems Strengthening Program, which the organization was implementing through a partner agency in the field. When I had joined, both the programs were in their nascent phases of implementation, within 3 months of my joining, I could contribute significantly to designing, budgeting and implementation guidelines of the programs, following which I was entrusted to handle these programs independently. Throughout these initial months, I was actively making visits to the program geographies, collecting inputs from the field teams and program beneficiaries, which helped me immensely in continuously revising the program strategies and improvising, eventually leading to a successful program intervention, meeting all the program objectives in stipulated time and contributing significantly to the National AIDS control program. After almost 6 months of my tenure at the organization, looking at my dedication and capability, I was entrusted with additional responsibility of handling private sector engagement under the organization's flagship AHANA program (Elimination of Vertical Transmission of HIV & Syphilis) and was promoted to the rank of Senior Technical Advisor. While accomplishing the tasks assigned to me, to keep myself academically engaged and thriving, I had also written multiple articles, of which one got selected in International Pediatric HIV Symposium in Africa (IPHASA) and two got selected in International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2023), to be held this year in Munich, with me being the first author. All this while, I have been actively liaising with the stakeholders at National, State and District levels and have made several presentations and participated in several technical resource group meetings organized by National AIDS Control Organization; and have thus, supported the formulation of national guidelines for several diseases. Recently, with effect from 1st April 2024, i.e., at the beginning of new grant phase of Global Fund, I was promoted as Senior Manager and was entrusted with yet another challenging task of directly implementing One Stop Centre program in the field, with support from my other colleagues. While this was indeed a daunting task of managing One stop Centres directly across 74 locations in india, it provided me an opportunity of learning the field level challenges directly and handling them with great precision while simultaneously improving the overall program efficiency. In all, this short duration at Plan International (India Chapter) provided me with immense insights into India's health systems, disease landscape, field level challenges, stigma issues faced by vulnerable groups and provided me with opportunities of implementing programs, both directly and through implementing partner in the field.

In all my previous roles, I have always been responsible for taking critical decisions regarding patient management and counselling of families and other stake-holders in healthcare delivery especially in a team-setting. I have led teams in wards on my own, assigning duties and managing medical emergencies, including those related to interpersonal differences, especially when it came to managing relatives' expectations and morale of medical service providers. Triaging of patients coming for treatment is always a challenge and I have done this over the years with guidance from my seniors and support from my colleagues and juniors. I have also delivered lectures discussing and explaining appropriate responses to medical crises, as well as routinely held counselling sessions for families of children suffering from certain diseases, especially those requiring particular epidemiological and social interventions. In my current role, I am engaged in managing and supervising implementation of a wide-spectrum of activities involving teams from within the organization and from supporting Government and Non-Governmental agencies– including planning, conceptualizing, administration, branding, and financing verticals- and channelling all these into an effective delivery mechanism for some of the most vulnerable sections of Indian society- i.e. Transgender persons, Drug Users and Migrants & Truckers. My past experience as a clinical doctor has proved to be specially beneficial since it gives me a unique capability to contribute to the effectiveness of various anti-HIV delivery programmes being envisaged or implemented among various groups.

‘Prevalence of Celiac Disease in First Degree Relatives of children with Celiac Disease’

• Made an oral presentation at WCPGHAN-2012 on the topic ‘Prevalence and HLA profile of First Degree relatives of Celiac Disease patients’. (First author)
• Presented two case reports at PEDICON-2013.
• Made a poster presentation on ‘Anti-tTGA and HLA DQ2/8 analysis as a diagnostic test for CD’ at PEDGASTROCON-2013. (First author)
• Made a case presentation at Academic meeting of Indian Academy of Pediatrics in Delhi in 2012.

Experience of leading HIV programs at Plan India: Given the exhaustive experience of working in the clinical, pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, in all of which, I was involved not only in planning and supervision but also grass root implementation, monitoring and feedback mechanisms. In both clinical practice and in my current role, I have been actively involved in working with particularly vulnerable and critical population groups and have therefore acquired experience in engaging with both the service providers and the target beneficiaries, constructively and empathetically. Technical Expertise as a Paediatrician: My technical expertise as a Paediatrician helps me in better understanding and effective implementation of the HIV programs in the field. Rapport with Stakeholders in some of the implementation States: My active involvement in the OSC & CSS projects at Plan India, helped me interact with various stakeholders involved in the implementation process like NACO/SACS, DAPCU, NVHCP, etc. In light of the above facts, I think I am uniquely placed to contribute to the advertised role.

• Awarded the International Young Investigator Award by NASPGHAN-2012 at Taiwan
• Awarded Silver Medal in Physiology and Paediatrics in MBBS
• Merit Holder and District topper throughout School years
• Won many Awards and Medals in extra-curricular activities, esp, Athletics.

• Singla S, Kumar P, Singh P, Kaur G, Rohatgi A, Choudhury M. HLA Profile of Celiac Disease among First-degree relatives from a tertiary care center in North India. Indian J Pediatr. 2016 Nov; 83(11): 1248-1252. Epub 2016 June 6.
• Shilpy Singla, Kausik Mandal, Suvasini Sharma, Viswas Chhapola. Partial trisomy of chromosome 15q and partial monosomy of 6q due to maternal balanced translocation. J Pediatr Neurosci. 2014 May-Aug; 9(2): 178-181.
• Kirtisudha Mishra, Shilpy Singla, Suvasini Sharma, Renu Saxena, Vineeta Vijay Batra. Griscelli syndrome type 2: a novel mutation in RAB27Agene with different clinical features in 2 siblings: a diagnostic conundrum. Korean J Pediatr. 2014 feb; 57(2): 91-95.
• Mishra K, Singla S, Batra VV, Basu S, Kumar P. Extensive cutaneous necrosis in a 12-year-old girl: an unusual complication of secondary cold agglutinin syndrome. Paediatr Int Child Health. 2013 Dec 6: 2046905513Y0000000065.
• Soumya Patra, Sayan Chatterjee, Shilpi Singla, Bijoy Patra, Anu Maheswari, Anju Seth. Cor Pulmonale in a case of Infantile Gaucher's disease. Indian J Endocrinol Metab. 2011 April-Jun. 15(2): 134-136.
• Contributor towards finalization of IAP CDMP (Comprehensive Diarrhoea Management Program) module.