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Gender Equality Directory of Good Practice and Research
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  3. Professor Arunthathi Mahendran: The SHAPE Health Initiative

The SHAPE Health Initiative

Professor Arunthathi Mahendran

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Please outline the work you lead and how it relates to progressing gender equality

The SHAPE Health Initiative is a groundbreaking cross-disciplinary institute at Queen Mary University of London that brings together the Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) with Medicine and Dentistry (FMD).

SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts for People and the Economy) is a collective name first introduced by the British Academy and UKRI.  It champions the fundamental role of these disciplines in understanding our world and making it a better place.

Key Projects.

Several key projects in education and research are already underway: 

  • Oral Health in North East London  
  • Ethics of practice 
  • Children and Digital Well-being 
  • Kinship and Intergenerational Communities
  • Healthcare Education and Training  
  • Shared Decision-Making in Surgery 
  • Gender and Adversity in healthcare 
  • Living with Waste

What has inspired and motivated you to progress this work?

Inspiration around SHAPE Health is to challenge traditional views of health by reframing it through the following pivotal question:

What does it mean to be well?

SHAPE Health aims to explore complex health and healthcare issues through a transdisciplinary approach that combines the analytical and practical frameworks of these disciplines as well as the knowledge and expertise of non-academic experts such as local residents, public services and local communities.   

Through this transdisciplinary approach to health, we hope to better understand and appreciate the everyday experiences of our local communities, thereby co-creating solutions to the issues that impact their lives and which matter most to them.

How do you hope that this work will make a difference to promote gender equality and have you seen any impact so far?

By re-imagining health beyond the biomedical model, we aim to drive transformative change in the design and delivery of healthcare experiences, provisions and systems. SHAPE health focuses on the broader concept of living a fulfilling, meaningful, and healthful life thereby resonating with people’s everyday experiences of health.  We believe that this approach will help to re-imagine healthcare design, accessibility, and delivery according to the needs of the community.

In the short term, SHAPE Health aims to contribute to the development of a national model for the ‘neighborhood NHS’ -- a key policy initiative for the Labour government -- in collaboration with community partners. In the long term, SHAPE Health will position QM as a pioneering institution for interdisciplinary health education and research excellence that informs the design and implementation of cutting-edge policies and transformative practice that creates equity and innovation in health and healthcare. 

What did you enjoy most about this piece of work and do you have any plans going forward?

The initiative is in its very early stages having only been established at Senate in December 2024. We aim to focus on transdisciplinary research until 2026 and then focus on Interdisciplinary Education.

 

 

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