Jude Igumbor

I am an Associate Professor and the Academic Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary PhD Programme in Public and Population Health in the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg since 2015. I am also the Wits University Focal Person for the Consortium of Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA). I previously served as a Senior Lecturer and Project Manager at North West University, South Africa in multi-million dollar donor funded project on staff capacity building for teaching and research, and infrastructure development.

Within the broad theme of health system strengthening, my research work and publications have predominantly focused on community health worker interventions, school health programmes and human resources for health. Added to this, is my growing research portfolio in doctoral education and knowledge development in public and population health in Africa. My positions and research have been supported by organizations such as the CDC; USAID; Atlantic Philanthropies; Medtronic Foundation, Johnson and Johnson, Comic Relief, and the Wellcome Trust.

My other specific experiences are in the areas of health programmes strategic planning and quality improvement, and knowledge transfer to promote programmes efficiency, quality and impact. In one of my recent roles, I provided technical assistance to local and international programmes to meet public health needs of national governments aligned with the priorities of diverse multinational donor agencies. I have also provided operations research support to inform programme strategic directions and supported company innovations with empirical evidence; documented programme outcomes; and, ensured that all data collected and reported meet data quality standards to facilitate high precision decision-making. Presently, I am building the capacity of non-governmental organizations to use integrated real-time client management information system to facilitate better clinical and managerial decision-making in multiple service delivery sites across Africa. The project currently has over one and half million patient records in an integrated and interactive database with over 800 biopsychosocial and economic data elements at individual patient level. I am also developing a framework to guide collating, integrating, optimizing and utilizing scientific evidence generated in the CARTA network through data sharing for the betterment of population health.