Image of Mitchell Gralnick Weiss

Mitchell Gralnick Weiss, MD, PhD

Corresponding Member of the Faculty of Global Health and Social Medicine

Mitchell G. Weiss is a cultural psychiatrist, medical anthropologist, and health social science researcher. He trained in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School from 1981 to 1985 and then joined the Department of Social Medicine. He was awarded an NIMH Research Scientist Development Award from 1987 to 1992 and was mentored by Arthur Kleinman. After completing his residency in July 1985, he was an instructor in psychiatry and in social medicine. He became an assistant professor in June 1988. After joining the University of Toronto as an associate professor in 1992, he moved to Europe in 1995 to join the senior faculty of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH, formerly Swiss Tropical Institute) with an appointment as professor at the University of Basel. He chaired the Swiss TPH Department of Public Health and Epidemiology for 12 years from 1997. Within the department, he established a health social science unit and a cultural epidemiology research group to integrate principles and methods of medical anthropology and epidemiology for global health research.

In the field of cultural psychiatry, Dr. Weiss has served on the boards of major U.S. and global professional organizations, including the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture, the Transcultural Psychiatry Section of the World Psychiatric Association and the World Association for Cultural Psychiatry. He was a founding member of the steering committee of the International Consortium for Research and Action against Health-Related Stigma, established in 2004. He has served on various technical advisory groups of the WHO, including the Technical Advisory Group that guides the Global Leprosy Program, and the working group on oral cholera vaccines of the Global Task Force for Cholera Control. He was the first chair of the task force on community-directed treatment of onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis for the WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. He also served on WHO’s Immunization and Vaccines-Related Implementation Research Advisory Committee (IVIR-AC).

At the Swiss TPH, he supervised 14 master’s students, 18 doctoral students and 7 postdoctoral postgraduates; he became professor emeritus in July 2015. In the HMS Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, he was a lecturer until 2016 and remains a corresponding member of the faculty.

Affiliations
  • Professor Emeritus, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel; and the University of Basel, Switzerland
  • Honorary Professor, King Edward Memorial Hospital Research Centre, Pune, India

In his research, Dr. Weiss has engaged partnership networks, primarily in India and in Ghana, Kenya and other countries of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. This work has contributed to various aspects of global health with cultural studies of mental health and infectious disease problems. It does so by examining cultural and structural determinants of help seeking and access to services in control programs for tuberculosis, leprosy, malaria, onchocerciasis and other neglected tropical diseases. He has developed an approach for integrating quantitative and qualitative methods for the practical study of stigma for use in both clinical assessment and public health research. He has also focused on vaccine acceptance and demand based on a stakeholder framework to support vaccination programmes for influenza, HPV and cholera. His current work involves testing a framework for clinical assessment that harmonizes convergent priorities of cultural psychiatry and social medicine.

Antenatal influenza vaccination in urban Pune, India: clinician and community stakeholders' awareness, priorities, and practices.
Authors: Authors: Giduthuri JG, Purohit V, Kudale A, Utzinger J, Schindler C, Weiss MG.
Hum Vaccin Immunother
View full abstract on Pubmed
The concept of One Health: Cultural context, background & prospects in India.
Authors: Authors: Weiss MG, Agashe M, Gupte MD.
Indian J Med Res
View full abstract on Pubmed
Facets of clinical stigma after attempted suicide in Mumbai, India.
Authors: Authors: Weiss MG, Parkar SR.
Anthropol Med
View full abstract on Pubmed
Experiences and reactions of adolescent offspring to their fathers' heavy drinking: A qualitative study from an urban metropolis in India.
Authors: Authors: Nattala P, Murthy P, Weiss MG, Leung KS, Christopher R, V JS, S S.
J Ethn Subst Abuse
View full abstract on Pubmed
Policy and socio-cultural differences between cantons in Switzerland with high and low adolescent vaccination coverage for hepatitis B and HPV.
Authors: Authors: Masserey Spicher V, Weiss MG.
Vaccine
View full abstract on Pubmed
Pathways and associated costs of care in patients with confirmed and presumptive tuberculosis in Tanzania: A cross-sectional study.
Authors: Authors: Mhalu G, Hella J, Mhimbira F, Said K, Mosabi T, Mlacha YP, Schindler C, Gagneux S, Reither K, de Hoogh K, Weiss MG, Zemp E, Fenner L.
BMJ Open
View full abstract on Pubmed
Explaining patient delay in healthcare seeking and loss to diagnostic follow-up among patients with presumptive tuberculosis in Tanzania: a mixed-methods study.
Authors: Authors: Mhalu G, Weiss MG, Hella J, Mhimbira F, Mahongo E, Schindler C, Reither K, Fenner L, Zemp E, Merten S.
BMC Health Serv Res
View full abstract on Pubmed
Influenza vaccination of pregnant women: Engaging clinicians to reduce missed opportunities for vaccination.
Authors: Authors: Giduthuri JG, Purohit V, Maire N, Kudale A, Utzinger J, Schindler C, Weiss MG.
Vaccine
View full abstract on Pubmed
Qualitative Analysis of Cultural Formulation Interview: Findings and Implications for Revising the Outline for Cultural Formulation.
Authors: Authors: Paralikar VP, Deshmukh A, Weiss MG.
Transcult Psychiatry
View full abstract on Pubmed
Sickle Cell Clinical Research and Intervention Program (SCCRIP): A lifespan cohort study for sickle cell disease progression from the pediatric stage into adulthood.
Authors: Authors: Hankins JS, Estepp JH, Hodges JR, Villavicencio MA, Robison LL, Weiss MJ, Kang G, Schreiber JE, Porter JS, Kaste SC, Saving KL, Bryant PC, Deyo JE, Nottage KA, King AA, Brandow AM, Lebensburger JD, Adesina O, Chou ST, Zemel BS, Smeltzer MP, Wang WC, Gurney JG.
Pediatr Blood Cancer
View full abstract on Pubmed