Professor Sumit Kane

Social & Cultural Dimensions of Health Systems, Head

Sumit Kane

Sumit’s research focus is on low and middle-income country societies and health systems transitioning to a post-service availability phase. His research examines the questions these transitions raise for health systems.

In his inquiries he takes a critical, reflexive stance to examine issues and experiences from multiple perspectives (social, systems, operational), always with a view to inform the development of feasible solutions. His current research includes studies on the responsiveness of health systems (at the moment in India, Ghana, Vietnam, Australia), explorations of care-seeking journeys and pathways, inquiries into families’ experiences of major illnesses, examinations of the state of the medical profession including trust relations, and approaches to improving close to community health services in cities.

Sumit joined the Nossal Institute in 2018. Prior to that he worked at KIT Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam. At KIT, his research includes studies on health policy processes and regulation in Vietnam, India, and China, inquiries into pathways to maximise the equity, effectiveness, and efficiency of close-to-community services in Asia and Africa, and investigations on how social and gender norms shape women’s reproductive actions in South Sudan. At KIT, Sumit also led the Master of Public Health and Master of International Health programs.

Sumit has also consulted for and advised bilateral and multilateral agencies and international NGOs on global health matters. Since 2011, he has been an Honorary Professor at Gokhale Institute of Politics & Economics (GIPE) in Pune, India.

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