Public Health Impact Research Centre (PHIRC) is a registered research-based non-governmental, not-for-profit organization in Nigeria dedicated to the promotion of Public Health in Nigeria and Africa.

The centre was born in 2002 as a result of the need to promote the practice of Public Health in health institutions other than those in the Local Government Areas via the Primary Health Care programme. Occasionally, the Public Health specialty was seen as a tool for getting linked to international organizations such as WHO, UNICEF etc, and several health practitioners went and obtained the Masters in Public Health Degree to enable them have a qualification in Public Health and facilitate such links. Public health however is a specialty comprising 14 subspecialties namely:

• Family Health (including Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Care and School Health)

• Rehabilitative Medicine

• Research Methodology

• Epidemiology and Control Of Diseases

• Environmental Health

• Primary Health Care

• Biostatistics

• International Health

• Occupational Health

• Public Health Nutrition

• Health Education

• Public Health Administration/Health Resource Management

• Community Mental Health

• Medical Sociology or Social Medicine.

Several of these subspecialties are already being practiced in General and Teaching Hospitals without being recognized as such. Some others are not being practiced at all or at a very rudimentary level. The developed worlds has seen the impact of Public Health and have made huge investments in ensuring its promotion which ultimately brings out the doctor in the individual and reduces the frequency and severity of a lot of diseases will simple remedies usually through concerted efforts of the society.
 

• To improve Public health consciousness among health practitioners.

• To promote  research among health practitioners at all levels of the health care system (i.e. in primary, secondary and tertiary health care facilities)

• To  bridge the huge gap between research results and community health action

• To assist in the implementation of policies of Ministries of Health at the grassroots.

• Identify innovative and cost effective interventions for improving public health in Nigeria and Africa

• Seek collaboration with appropriate governmental agencies to transform such tested interventions in to sustainable and actionable programmes for improving the state of public health in Nigeria

• Seek grassroots collaboration and ownership of all projects and vigorously pursue financial, programmes and administrative accountability.

• To direct results of research towards advocacy programmes, training and consultation activities of the centre

• Research Projects

• Advocacy Programmes

• Training Programmes

• Capacity building

• Influence policy

• Documentation of findings in learned conference and peer review journals

• Collaboration with well-established national and international institutions and organizations.

PHIRC is open to:

• Individual membership: Individuals who feel they want to make a difference in the health of the public in their community and thus identify with the centre.

• Corporate Membership: Organisations and bodies with similar interests who wish to make a public health impact with through their association with the centre.

Benefits of Registration with PHIRC

• Subsidized registration in all Training Programmes

• Access to literature and Information on Public Health

• Minutes of meetings, and newsletters

• Subsidized purchase of publications

• Linkage with International bodies/institutions and other NGOs

• Collaboration in execution and publication of projects

PHIRC’s programmes are governed by a constitution adopted in 2002. Its activities are administered under the leadership of a board of trustees, through the executive director, who is the chairperson of a committee of associates.

PHIRC is funded through membership subscriptions, individual contributions and gifts, grants from charitable bodies, sales of publications, and consultancy fees.