Postdoctoral Global Health Scholar Drives Innovative, Interdisciplinary Research with New Course

Tackling the challenge of malaria care in a country with the world’s highest recorded incidence of the disease showed Deborah DiLiberto that complex global health problems require innovative, interdisciplinary solutions. The newest addition to the MSc Global Health program’s faculty is currently leading the development of a new course that will explore the role and application of innovative research methodologies in improving health and strengthening health systems.

“To improve quality of care and strengthen health systems, we need interventions that address the political, economic, and social challenges affecting health and access to care,” explains DiLiberto. “And in order to do this, we need to consider an approach to research and practice that challenges us to interrogate and redefine the socio-medical boundaries that have traditionally defined global health,” she says.

DiLiberto joins the program as a postdoctoral Global Health Scholar after completing a PhD in Public Health and MSc in Public Health in Developing Countries at the UK’s renowned London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). In between her degrees, DiLiberto was based in Uganda managing two studies exploring ways to improve care for malaria at health centres as part of the ACT Consortium, an international research collaboration based at LSHTM and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This research found that interventions focused on providing training and supplies for rural health centres produced only small improvements in the management of malaria cases, for example – and the changes were not sustainable.

“What’s required is a more dynamic approach to intervention design and evaluation that incorporates multiple perspectives on how interventions produce changes in health and health systems,” explains DiLiberto.

The transdisciplinary nature of the MSc Global Health program offers fertile ground for innovation in research. “I see a real opportunity here to investigate how incorporating different disciplinary perspectives can improve the design and evaluation of interventions targeting health and access to care in low-resource settings,” says DiLiberto, who plans to build on her PhD research, which followed an interdisciplinary approach to examine how different methodological approaches shape our understanding of how – and for whom – health service interventions bring about changes in health and the provision of care.

In addition to developing the course, which will likely be offered in January 2018, DiLiberto is working on new research projects and partnerships. “I’m thrilled to be part of a cutting-edge program, and am looking forward to engaging with students, collaborating with faculty, and continuing my research,” she says.

 Global Health News