Richard Cash was one of the panelists for the Forum’s discussion on The Path to Ending Child Mortality.
Richard Cash and his colleagues conducted the first clinical trials of Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) in adult and pediatric cholera patients and patients with other infectious causes of diarrhea at the Cholera Research Laboratory (now ICDDR,B) in Bangladesh. Other in-country studies included the first field trials and community-based trials of ORT and the use of amino acids (glycine) as an additional substrate.
He was the Principal Investigator of the Applied Diarrheal Disease Research (ADDR) Project, a program that assisted developing country scientists to hone their research skills by conducting their own research projects. Over 150 studies, involving more than 350 investigators were funded in twelve countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, leading to over 275 publications. Research priorities included: behavioral studies of care takers and providers; foods and fluids; prevention of diarrhea; persistent diarrhea; and acute respiratory infection and nutrition.
Dr. Cash also directed a program in research ethics that focused on training for fellows from Asia, and research ethics workshops at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and in 12 countries. He is the senior editor of “Casebook on Ethical Issues in International Health Research”, a WHO publication.
Scaling up health programs is a major interest and he is the senior editor of “From One to Many: Scaling Up Health Programs in Low-Income Countries”. As a member of the BRAC Health Group, he and colleagues have recently documented the BRAC TB DOTS program in “Making Tuberculosis History: Community-Based Solutions for Millions”
Presently he is a Visiting Professor at the Public Health Foundation of India in Delhi and has visiting faculty appointments at the James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Sciences Studies, in Trivandrum Kerala India, and the Graduate School of International Health Development at the University of Nagasaki.
