Improving health worldwide
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is renowned for its research, postgraduate studies and continuing education in public and global health. LSHTM has an international presence and collaborative ethos, and is uniquely placed to help shape health policy and translate research findings into tangible impact.
My research addresses the health determinants, policies and systems of countries experiencing major social change such as those affected by armed conflict and forced migration. This research has focused particularly on chronic conditions of mental health and non-communicable diseases, and related health behaviors such as harmful alcohol use.
I am Co-Director of the Centre for Global Chronic Conditions at LSHTM, and Editor-in-Chief of the BMC journal Conflict and Health.
I am supporting the health-related research and capacity building, particularly the quantitative methods. Providing knowledge on public health responses and research in conflict-affected areas.
My research focusses on examining how social and health policies and interventions influence people who sell sex and/or inject drugs’ vulnerability to blood-borne viruses, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and other health harms.
Much of this work has focused on the United Kingdom (UK), Russian Federation, Europe and more recently East Africa and India. I am an epidemiologist, applying different quantitative techniques to measure the effect of complex social policies. I recently led the analysis of a clustered randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effectiveness of community and individual-level interventions to reduce domestic violence among sex workers in India.
I am currently working on a mixed methods research project in London that seeks to measure the impact of criminalisation and police enforcement practices on sex workers’ experience of violence. I am particularly interested in exploring the tensions and effect of an enforcement and abolitionist approach to minimise drug use alongside the public health priorities to minimise harm in the context of long-standing conflict.
I look forward to collaborating with colleagues from the non-governmental sector and across disciplines to address this challenging question in this GCRF project.