Professor Justine Davies

• BSc 1^st class hons (Zoology)
• MD (research) Clinical pharmacology
• Member of the Royal College of Physicians
• Dip ABRSM (Violin, performance)
• MBChB hons (Medicine)
• BMSc 1^st class hons (forensic medicine and medical law)

After training in medicine, Professor Justine Davies practised as a cardiovascular clinical pharmacologist, caring for people with cardiovascular diseases and their risk factors. As a part of this role, as a clinical lecturer, she ran early-stage clinical trials of medications to reduce cardiovascular risk. 

Recognising the increasing necessity to put human health in the context of the planet on which we live, Professor Davies took time out from clinical duties to study for a Zoology degree – including environmental and climate sciences. At that time, and driven by a love of writing and explaining science to lay people, she also worked as a freelance science journalist, including for the BBC.  

After this, she honed her interest in Global Health and research excellence whilst working at the Lancet Journals. Professor Davies was an executive editor at The Lancet before launching as Editor in Chief, The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. Under her editorship the journal rose from start-up to the highest impact journal in its category.

A desire to contribute to answering important global health problems instigated her return to academia in 2016/2017 after completing the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery and The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Commission on Diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa.

Professor Davies has since worked at Wits University in South Africa and KCL in the UK. She now has honorary professorships at Wits and Stellenbosch Universities in South Africa.  

Experience at The Lancet Journals has developed her keen sense of what is an impactful research question and how to answer this with methodological rigour. It has also embedded within her a sense of fairness and desire for more equity in the worlds of health policy, research, and learning.

Professor Davies teaches on the Global Health modules of the MPH program at University of Birmingham and also mentors students and junior staff in the institutes where she has honorary positions and projects.

Professor Davies supervises PhD students in the fields of global health systems and subjects related to surgery, injuries, or cardiovascular diseases.

Research interests

Professor Justine Davies is interested in health systems to provide quality care in low- or middle-income countries.

Specialty areas of interest are cardiovascular diseases, surgery, and injuries.

Current projects

• NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery: Establishing a Sustainable Network of Surgical Research.  Co-Investigator and co-lead of the access to care workstream 
• US NIH PAR-19-376: Mobile Health: Technology and Outcomes in Low and Middle Income Countries. 1R21TW011636-01A1. Rwanda 912: an mHealth Application to Improve Quality of Trauma and Emergency Care in Kigali, Rwanda. Co-Investigator
• Utstein 2: Development of guidelines for collection of Global Surgery Metrics (funded by the Laerdal Foundation) co-lead
• MRC: Systems thinking approach to developing an integrated and patient-centred intervention model for multimorbidity. Co-investigator
• NIHR Health Policy and Systems. Perioperative health systems to support surgical treatment: Establishing a world leading global health research collaboration to deliver innovative solutions promoting the safety and quality of care for surgical patients. Co-investigator
• Academy of Medical Sciences/GCRF Network grant: AfroSurg: A Network to Improve Equitable Access to Safe and Timely Surgical Care in Southern Africa. Co-lead.
• NIHR Health Policy and Systems. Equitable access to quality trauma systems in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries. Assessing gaps and developing priorities. Equitrauma, Principle Investigator

• Global Health and Population Project on Access to Care for Cardiometabolic Diseases (HPACC)

Professor Davies regularly reviews for medical journals and funding bodies. She has sat as a panel member for NIH funding.

Professor Davies is a member of the WHO team to agree targets for the Global Diabetes Compact.

Selected journalist articles written by Professor Justine Davies:

'More harm than good' - The Guardian

'There are risks as well as benefits – so get the facts, then decide' - The Scotsman

'Diabetes targets would cost more but the impact would be worth it: here’s how' - The Conversation

'Bracelets from cluster bombs' - The Lancet

'Why it’s so difficult to tackle diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa' - The Conversation 

'Climate complexities stoke disease controversies' - SciDev.Net

'Cost of diabetes care in Africa could triple by 2030' - SciDev.Net

'Modified plant clears up deadly water toxin' - SciDev.Net