Co-Investigators, Partners and Scientific Advisory Group
Our co-investigators, partners and scientific advisory group support our research on equitable access to quality trauma care in LMICs.
Meet our team of researchers and advisors
Ghana
Ghana
University for Development Studies
Professor Stephen Tabiri, Country lead
Dean, University for Development Studies School of Medicine
Consultant Surgeon, Tamale Teaching Hospital
The professor of surgery teaches surgery at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He is responsible for postgraduate training in surgery and the convenor of Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons’ Basic Surgical Science Training Course in the Tamale Teaching Hospital.
Professor Tabiri is the Ghana National Lead of Global Surgery and as a co-applicant secured more than £3.9 million in research funding to improve surgical care and outcomes in the low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
He has successfully established a Global Surgery Ghana Hub in Tamale, with the objective of building and sustaining surgical research throughout Ghana. He was recently appointed as a co-director of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) on Global Health Unit in the University of Birmingham, UK.
Dr Napoleon Bellua Sam, Co-investigator
Dr Napoleon is a Senior Lecturer and head of Department at the Department of Medical Research and Innovation, School of Medicine, University for Development Studies (UDS).
He is a professional Statistician, Biostatistician, Epidemiologist, and a Scholar at Leaders of Africa Institute. Napoleon is the manager of Ghana Data Centre which offers training on data management, statistical packages and data analysis for students, lecturers, residents, medical doctors and the various spokes at the Ghana Hub, NIHR-Global Surgery Unit as well as advancing research.
He is also the Deputy Director for Ghana Hub, NIHR-Global Surgery Unit and a member of the Education Committee of NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery. I am a member of AMPATH Ghana and also part of the research committee.
Napoleon is a multidisciplinary researcher, whose research interests cover mental health, climate change, maternal health and adolescents with special emphasis on Evidence Based Medicine, Efficiency Measurement in Health Care, Effect of meteorological factors on diseases and Statistical and mathematical modeling.
He is knowledgeable in Community, engagement and involvement in research and is also keenly involved in community development works. Napoleon introduces a variety of statistical techniques to real and complex datasets, interprets and reports statistical output. He holds a degree of command over some statistical software applications and data visualization software. He is a member of Ghana Statistical Association and International Biometric Society, Ghana Region.
Pakistan
Pakistan
The Aga Khan University
Professor Junaid Razzak, Country lead
Dr. Razzak is the Vice-Chair of Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. As part of his global work, Dr. Razzak also serves as the Center of Excellence for Trauma and Emergencies Director at Aga Khan University.
Before his current role, Dr. Razzak served as the founding Director of the Center for Global Emergency Care and Professor of Emergency Medicine and International Health at Johns Hopkins University. In addition, he has worked in a wide variety of roles and settings, including as the Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Emergency Medicine and Trauma; the CEO of a Not-for-Profit EMS; and chair of NIH’s Collaborative on Enhancing Emergency Care Research in LMICs (CLEER).
Dr. Razzak has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award by the Global Emergency Medicine Academy, the Award for Outstanding Contribution by the International Section of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and the Mentorship and Teaching Awards from his residents.
Dr. Razzak did his MBBS from Aga Khan University in Pakistan, completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Yale University, and Ph.D. in Public Health from Karolinska Institute. Dr. Razzak has published over 150 manuscripts and monographs and has mentored several Emergency Medicine and Public Health trainees and students.
Professor Sameen Siddiqi
Deputy country lead & Shirin & Abdullah Allidina Family Endowed Chair
Professor Department of Community Health Sciences Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Dr Sameen Siddiqi is the Professor and Chair, Department of Community Health Sciences, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan since January 2018. Earlier, he worked for the World Health Organization for 16 years where he served as Director, Health System Development covering the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
He spearheaded the work on universal health coverage. He has also served as WHO’s Representative to Lebanon and Iran. Prior to joining WHO, Dr Siddiqi was associated with the Health Services Academy, Ministry of Health, Pakistan where he was instrumental in developing its educational and research programs and later served as a Senior Health Specialist at the World Bank in Islamabad.
Dr Siddiqi has a fellowship in internal medicine, and a master’s degree, fellowship, and doctoral degree in public health. He has worked for over two decades advising lower- and middle-income countries on strengthening health systems. He has special interest in health system governance, private health sector, public private partnership and quality and safety of care.
Dr Siddiqi has multiple publications and book chapters, is a reviewer for several international journals and research funding agencies and is on the editorial board of peer reviewed journals. He is also the lead editor of a forthcoming textbook on Making Health Systems Work in Low and Middle Income Countries, which will be published by the Cambridge University Press.
Among others, Dr Siddiqi is also a member of the Senate of Health Services Academy, Islamabad, and the Quality Committee of the WHO’s Global Health Academy.
Rwanda
Rwanda
University of Rwanda
Professor Jean Claude BYIRINGIRO
Jean Claude BYIRINGIRO is an Associate Professor of Surgery (Orthopaedics) and Dean at the School of Medicine and Pharmacy, University of Rwanda, College of Medicine and Health Science. He previously served in positions of Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Head of Accident and Emergency Department, Director of Clinical Services and Founding Head of Division of Clinical Education and Research at the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK). He has also been the Vice-Chairperson and Acting Chairperson of Rwanda Medical and Dental Council between 2016 and 2022.
Jean Claude has championed the development of modern injury management systems at CHUK including the establishment of a triage system, an early warning score and a reorganized patient flow in the Accident and Emergency Department, and has worked with the prehospital ambulance service, SAMU (Service d’Aide Medicale d’Urgence), to develop a data-driven quality improvement system.
Jean Claude’s scientific work in the domain of global surgery, specifically in injury prevention and management systems has attracted many research grants and resulted in more than 35 peer-reviewed publications.
During his tenure as Dean of the School of Medicine and Pharmacy (still ongoing), Jean Claude has led the development of more than 15 new academic programs.
University of Global Health Equity
Professor Abebe Bekele, Country lead
Abebe Bekele, is Deputy Vice Chancellor of Academic and Research Affaires, and Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE). He is a Professor of Surgery (General and Thoracic surgery) and has served as CEO of the Black Lion teaching Hospital and Dean of the School of Medicine of Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. He also has full professor faculty positions at the Addis Ababa University and the University of Rwanda.
He has received additional fellowship in Medical Education from FAIMER and in Simulation Based Education from the University of Washington. He has vast experience in surgical education, academic leadership, and governance. He has also served as guest lecturer, international speaker and external examiner in undergraduate and post graduate education in Ethiopia, Africa, Europe and North America.
Professor Abebe is a member of the Governing Council and Chairman of the Examinations and Credentials Committee at the College of Surgeons of East Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) and Editor-in Chief of the East and Central Africa Journal of Surgery.
Professor Abebe is actively engaged in Global Safe Surgery and Anesthesia Initiatives and has served as a senior advisor to the Federal Ministry of Health, Ethiopia in the Saving Lives Through Safe Surgery (SaLTS) initiative. His research interest include equity in global surgery, trauma care, surgical oncology, medical education, and quality in health care.
Professor Alemayehu Amberbir
Assistant Professor and Head of Research Projects at the Institute of Global Health Equity Research at the University of Global Health Equity. Dr. Alemayehu Amberbir is a medical epidemiologist with over 14 years of experience in both academia and field research settings in Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda and the UK.
Dr Amberbir trained as a primary health care practitioner and holds a Master’s in Public Health from Ethiopia, and a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health from the University of Nottingham, UK. Dr Amberbir previously worked at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) based overseas in Malawi. Dr Amberbir also worked as a senior scientist and epidemiologist at Dignitas International based in Malawi and was involved in various implementation research efforts and Knowledge Translation (KT) activities.
Dr. Amberbir was the 2018/2019 Postdoctoral Fellow at the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR); Canadian HIV Trials Network (CTN), and held an Adjunct Lecturer position at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada. Dr Amberbir currently works as Assistant Professor and Head of Research Projects at the Institute of Global Health Equity Research (IGHER) at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) based in Kigali, Rwanda.
Rwanda Biomedical Center
Irene BAGAHIRWA
Irene is a Public Health specialist with 18 years of technical experience in coordinating technical aspects of health programs, disease prevention and control. She currently leads the Injuries and Disability Unit at Non Communicable Diseases Division in Rwanda Biomedical Centre.
Irene is a research-driven public health professional who has been published in different journals. A highly organised and attentive to details with strong administrative and leadership skills, Irene holds a certificate of public health Leadership from the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Washington, where she completed a six months training in September 2021.
South Africa
South Africa
Stellenbosch University
Professor Kathryn Chu, Co-Lead
Professor Chu is a general and colorectal surgeon. She received her undergraduate degree from Stanford University. She completed her medical degree and general surgery residency at the University of California- San Francisco.
She was a Fulbright scholar at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she received a Master's degree in Public Health and Developing Countries.
She is an adjunct professor at University of Botswana (Department of surgery), a Board member of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health and the inaugural director of the Centre of Global Surgery.
Dr Lungiswa Nkonki, Co-Investigator, Senior Lecturer
Dr Lungiswa Nkonki is a senior lecturer in the Department of Global Health at Stellenbosch University. Between 2013 and 2019, she served as a panel member on the Competition Commission of South Africa’s first Private Healthcare Market Inquiry. She is a South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS) member. Also, she is an Editorial Board member for PLOS Global Public Health and the South African Journal of Science.
Her research interests include economic evaluation of healthcare interventions – particularly the cost-effectiveness of community-based interventions aimed at improving maternal, child and adolescent health outcomes. Other research experience includes measuring inequality in health outcomes, social determinants of health, health systems research, universal health coverage, and private healthcare. She has also worked as a specialist scientist at the Medical Research Council.
Division of Health System & Public Health
Dr Christina Laurenzi, Co-Investigator & CEI lead
Christina Laurenzi is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Life Course Health Research at Stellenbosch University, where she focuses on adolescent and participatory engagement, mental health interventions, and implementation science approaches to evaluation.
She is passionate about South-South collaboration and generating evidence to inform programming that can support marginalized individuals and communities.
Christina has collaborated with a diverse range of partners including the World Health Organization, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, Plan International, One to One Africa Children’s Fund, and citiesRISE. She received her doctorate from Stellenbosch University in 2020.
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
University of Birmingham
Professor Justine Davies
Research Lead
Professor Justine Davies' aim is to do research that informs development of health systems that deliver quality care in lower- or middle-income countries. All of her research aims to answer a policy relevant question and she often works with policy makers, including the WHO.
Specialty areas of interest are conditions that require surgery to treat, injuries, and cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors. All of these specialty areas require a joined-up health system that provides good quality care.
Professor Davies is the lead of the Institute for Global Innovation’s Ageing Frailty, and Resilience theme, co-lead of the Global Health Research Impact Hub and Network at the University of Birmingham. She also is the co-PI of the NIHR funded Global Health Group – Equi-Injury.
Professor Richard Lilford
Richard J Lilford CBE, FMedSci, DSc (hon), PhD, FRCOG, FRCP, FFPH, FRCGP (hon) is Professor of Public Health at the University of Birmingham. He has pursued a successful career in medicine for over 40 years, specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology and more recently, health service research.
He has research methodological expertise in the evaluation of complex interventions, rapid research, and prospective health economic evaluations of service delivery interventions. He has designed a framework for the evaluation of complex interventions that draws a crucial distinction between targeted and generic service interventions and is also interested in Bayesian statistics, medical ethics, clinical trials, step-wedge cluster trials, and multiple-indication reviews.
He has also recently diversified into global health, including health and sanitation in low- and middle-income countries, treatment and prevention of leprosy and Buruli ulcers, and improving health in slums.
Professor Antonio Belli
Professor of Trauma Neurosurgery and Co-Investigator
Professor Belli graduated from Tor Vergata University in Rome with a degree in Medicine and Surgery. He completed a doctoral degree (MD) on neurobiochemistry of brain ischaemia and reperfusion at Tor Vergata University and then moved to the UK in 1994.
He trained as a neurosurgeon at King’s College Hospital, Atkinson Morley’s Hospital, The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Great Ormond Street Hospital, The Royal Free Hospital and Charing Cross Hospital. Between 2001 and 2003 he carried out a research fellowship in neuromonitoring at the Institute of Neurology in London.
He is on the editorial board of several neurology journals and is an advisor to NICE and the Care Quality Commission.
Antonio Belli is Director of the NIHR SRMRC. Find out more about the work of the research centre on the SRMRC website.
Dr Agnieszka Ignatowicz
Associate Professor in Health Research Methods and Co-Investigator
Agnieszka is an Associate Professor in Health Research Methods working in the Department of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Birmingham. She is an experienced applied health researcher.
Her scholarship is grounded in theories and methods found in the fields of sociology and implementation science with application to organization and delivery of care (particularly acute care) and healthcare work and professions across a wide range of settings.
To date, Agnieszka’s research has been focusing on new models of care, technology in healthcare, clinical decision-making, and patient and clinician experiences. Her research led to significant advances in the understanding of how different initiatives deliver (or fail to deliver) expected benefits and support translation of the evidence for service changes, practice, and policy.
She has experience in conducting systematic reviews, clinical research studies, and service model and policy evaluations using qualitative research designs.
Professor Alice Sitch
Professor of Biostatistics and Co-Investigator
Alice is a Professor of Biostatistics working in the Department of Applied Health Sciences and a member of the Biostatistics, Evidence Synthesis and Test Evaluation (BESaTE) research group.
Since joining the University in 2009, Alice has become involved in many exciting projects allowing her to collaborate with others in the BESaTE team and many other researchers at the University of Birmingham and beyond.
Alice’s main research interests are in the area of designing and evaluating monitoring tests and studies of biological variability. Alice is the deputy lead for the cross-cutting diagnostics and biomarkers theme of the Birmingham NIHR Biomedical Research Centre.
University of Aberdeen
Dr Lucia Dambruoso
Co-Investigator
Lucia is a social scientist and health policy and systems researcher at the University of Aberdeen, interested in service organisation and delivery, the social determinants of health, and participatory theory and method.
She works with relativist theories and methods to understand and draw transferable learning on: health and wellbeing as shaped by social structures and systems; health systems as complex, adaptive, human and relational; policy norms and recognition; and social and political participation.
She works with two main methods: routine mortality surveillance accounting for social dimensions of unregistered deaths, and participatory methods to shift power towards those most directly affected to know, understand, act and transform.
University of York
Professor Laura Bojke, Centre for Health Economics
Laura is a Professor at the University of York, who has worked on a wide range of applied and methodological projects across economic evaluation in her 20+ years as a health economist. She has extensive experience with both trial-based, and model based economic evaluation and has led several projects looking at developing methods for economic evaluation and decision modelling. She has worked on HTA and public health type projects.
Laura has contributed to technology appraisals for NICE in her role as a member of one of the independent academic groups undertaking assessments and evidence reviews. She is also a member of a Technology Appraisal Committee and the NIHR HS&DR Committee looking at proposals for service evaluation and improvement.
Laura currently co-leads the Applied Research and Collaborations (ARC) Yorkshire and Humber Health Economics, Evaluation and Equity them. The program of work includes the use of economic evaluation across sectors, economic evaluation for local decision makers and the use of routine data for economic evaluation.
Scientific Advisory Group
Scientific Advisory Group
Chair, Andy Leather, King's College London, UK
Andy Leather is a Senior Lecturer in Global Health and Surgery at King’s College London, UK. He was a Consultant Surgeon at King’s College Hospital from 1996-2015, holding various roles including Clinical Director for Surgery.
He founded King’s Global Health Partnerships that brings together the academic, health and international development communities from King’s Health Partners. KGHP works alongside our international partners, to strengthen healthcare systems in Somaliland, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia.
He co-chaired the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery and his research interests are in strengthening surgical systems.
Andrew Leather - Research Portal, King's College, London (kcl.ac.uk)
Co-Chair, Sadaf Khan Aga Khan University, Pakistan
Associate Dean Undergraduate Medical Education, Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, Director, Center for Global Surgical Care.
Recognising the need for exploration of surgical issues as they pertain to Pakistan, the Center of Global Surgical Care was established at AKU. This is a collaboration between the departments of Surgery, Anesthesia, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Family Medicine, and Community Health Sciences. A
dditionally, we initiated a Rural Surgery Leadership program to provide a trained surgeon to manage all emergency surgical procedures and develop the skills to work within different health systems in resource-constrained environments.
Faculty Profile | MC, PK | The Aga Khan University (aku.edu)
Assistant Chair, Anthony Howard, University of Oxford, UK
Anthony is a Clinical research fellow in musculoskeletal trauma orthopaedic surgeon with an interest in injuries in LMICs. He is affiliated with the University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences.
Charlie Mock, The University of Washington, USA
Charlie is a Professor of Global Health, Surgery and Epidemiology, with an expertise in Prevention and Trauma Care, especially in low-and middle-income countries. He worked as a surgeon in Ghana and he served as Director of University of Washington’s Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center.
He has also worked at WHO, where he developed WHO's trauma care activities. In 2010, he returned to his joint position as Professor of Surgery and Epidemiology at University of Washington. His main interests include the spectrum of injury control: surveillance; injury prevention; trauma care
Charlie Mock | University of Washington - Department of Global Health
Tiffany Chao, Stanford University, USA
Tiffany is a general surgeon at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and a Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery (Affiliated) in the Stanford Department of Surgery. Her interests in surgery include minimally invasive foregut, hernia, and colorectal surgery, in addition to acute care & trauma surgery.
Tiffany E. Chao, MD, MPH, FACS's Profile | Stanford Profiles
Margie Peden, Imperial College London, UK
Dr Peden holds degrees in nursing and epidemiology and is an internationally recognized injury epidemiologist. She headed the unintentional injury prevention team at WHO for 17 years leading both world reports on Road traffic injury prevention (2004) and Child injury prevention (2008).
She is currently the head of The George Institute’s global injury programme based at Imperial College London. She co-directs a WHO Collaborating Centre on Injury Prevention and Trauma Care.
Heike Geduld, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Heike is Associate Professor and Head of the division of Emergency Medicine at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa. She works clinically with the Western Cape EMS. She is a past President of the College of Emergency Medicine of South Africa as well as the African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM).
Susan Levine, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Susan is a Professor and Head of Anthropology in the School of African and Gender Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of Cape Town. and Convenor of Health Humanities and the Arts.
Her previous work as a medical anthropologist created a bridge between public health, medicine, and the arts, which is a theme that Susan continues to develop in her research on paediatric illness, skin bleaching, sight impairment, and the political economy of health.
Dr Susan Levine | Anthropology (uct.ac.za)
Risikat Dauda, University of Lagos, Nigeria
Risikat is a Professor of Economics at University of Lagos. Risikat is a development economist with more than 20 years of experience in research, teaching and consultancy on issues of African development. Risikat DAUDA | Professor of Economics | PhD | University of Lagos, Lagos | Unilag | Department of Economics (researchgate.net)
Karen Daniels, Independent Health Policy and Systems expert, South Africa
Karen has worked as a specialist scientist at the South African Medical Research Council within the Health Systems Research Unit. She has also worked as a technical officer at the World Health Organization within the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, as well as the Health Workforce Department.
In her activism, Karen served for nearly 20 years as a Board member for the Surplus People Project. She has also served on the Board of Health Systems Global for 3 years. In 2020 Karen was appointed by Dr Tedros to the WHO’s Guidelines Review Committee, where she continues to serve.
While her research content interests are wide, her methods have focused on the conduct and teaching of primary qualitative research and qualitative evidence synthesis. Through this work she hopes to bring a human voice to the experience of health systems policy, guidelines, implementation, and reform. In her work she is guided by a commitment to social justice, socialism, feminism, and a feminist ethic of care.
Lee Wallis, World Health Organization, Geneva
Lee is Lead: Emergency Care at WHO headquarters within the Clinical Services and Systems Unit. Before that, he was Professor and Head of the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of Cape Town. He was also the head of the Division of Emergency Medicine at Stellenbosch University.
Lee is the past president of the Emergency Medicine Society of South Africa, the African Federation for Emergency Medicine and more recently the International Federation for Emergency Medicine.
Elmin Steyn, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Elmin is a Professor and the Head of the Division of Surgery at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town. She is a certified trauma surgeon and experienced transplant surgeon. Previously Elmin was in practice at the Christiaan Barnard Memorial and Vincent Pallotti Hospitals in Cape Town, where she set-up the Trauma Emergency Centres and established the first private Renal Transplant program in Cape Town.
Professor Elmin Steyn - Centre For Trauma Sciences (qmul.ac.uk)
Antuela Tako, Reader in Operational Research at the School of Business and Economics, Loughborough University
Antuela is an expert in developing quantitative and qualitative modelling approaches to support organisations in their decision-making processes. Her research interests focus on simulation modelling and more specifically participative and facilitated simulation, comparison of alternative simulation approaches, hybrid simulation, behavioural operational research and problem structuring methods, applied primarily in healthcare.
Antuela is the co-founder of PartiSim (www.partisim.org) and supported Leicestershire County Council in the development of integrated community-based care services as part of the Simulation for Greater Care project (www.simtegr8.org). Her research has appeared in the European Journal of Operational Research, Decision Support Systems, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Journal of Simulation, etc.
Antuela is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the Operational Research Society, Journal of Simulation and the Health Systems Journal. Her email address is: a.takou@lboro.ac.uk.