Uncategorized | Ternyata – Public Health Consultancy

At Ternyata, we care about research that improves public health. We aim to help scientists design better research, collect better data, and make better use of the information they generate.

Our public health consultancy services range from advising on the design of national infectious disease surveillance systems to helping scientists communicate with policy makers and the public, so that good research gets translated into good public health policy.

We provide training in research methods, data management, analysis and infectious disease epidemiology. Monitoring and evaluation of public health interventions is another major area of work.

On the communications side, we help researchers develop science writing and communication skills, so that they can increase the visibility of their work in peer-reviewed journals and in the public eye. We’re also keen to promote dialogue and debate between scientists, politicians and the public; we believe that scientifically literate populations can demand more from the research community as well as from policy makers. Public engagement work includes working with media to improve reporting of science, and thought-provoking collaborations with artists.

We never lose sight of the fact that science does not exist in a vacuum, and work hard to make sure that our advice is practical and our recommendations feasible. We try to bring an open mind and a critical spirit to every job. This is reflected in our name: “Ternyata” is an Indonesian word meaning an unexpected finding or a surprising result.

Ternyata Ltd. was founded in 2010 by Elizabeth Pisani, and is a loose coalition of like-minded researchers who work on a project basis. The company is incorporated in the United Kingdom (registration number 7119741). Our working languages are English, French, Spanish and Indonesian, and training can also be provided in Mandarin Chinese.

About Elizabeth Pisani

Elizabeth has a PhD in infectious disease epidemiology, an MSc in medical demography and an MA in classical Chinese. She has worked for a wide variety of international organisations, including the World Health Organisation, UNAIDS, UNICEF and the World Bank, and has provided advice to ministries of health in a number of countries including Indonesia, China, the Philippines, East Timor and Kenya.

Most of Elizabeth’s field epidemiology work has been in HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, with a special emphasis on the measurement of sexual behaviour. More recent interests encompass areas of policy that cut across many fields — antimicrobial resistance, medicine quality, data sharing and the ethics of biobanking are among them.

A frequent public speaker, Elizabeth’s TED talk about how we make health decisions has been watched by over a million people. Her book The Wisdom of Whores, about the clash between data and politics in the HIV industry, is taught on courses from economics to ethnography.