Dr. Vikram Patel is a professor of international mental health and the Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Patel is based in Goa, India, where he serves on the boards of three community based NGOs including Sangath, a community mental health NGO (www.sangath.com) he founded and was the 2008 recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s International Prize for Creative and Effective Institutions. In Goa, Dr. Patel leads research projects focusing on the influence of social determinants and cultural factors on health and improving the quality of care of people affected by chronic diseases.