About the lecture

The global health landscape is undergoing a rapid, profound set of transitions that threaten to stall or even derail progress in health improvement, including transitions in diseases, demography, development assistance for health and domestic health financing (the “4Ds” of transition). Maintaining continued global health progress—and certainly achieving an acceleration in progress—will depend on how health policymakers navigate these critical transitions. DGHI’s Center for Policy Impact in Global Health is hosting five international fellows from Ghana (Gilbert Abiiro), Nigeria (Tolu Oladele, Kurfi Abubakr and Daniel Ogbuabor), and Sweden (Hampus Holmer) and their policy research projects address a remarkable range of "grand challenges" associated with transition. DGHI’s Gavin Yamey will moderate five short "spark talks" from all five fellows, followed by a moderated Q&A with the audience. The fellows' research projects include ways to improve the quality of health care, ways to reach universal health coverage with a focus on protecting the poor, how middle-income countries can fund their own HIV programs after donors exit, and policies to prevent a catastrophic explosion of non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.

Lunch will be provided. This event is part of Think Global, a weekly lecture series at the Duke Global Health Institute. It is free and open to the public. Parking for Trent Hall is available in the Duke Medicine Circle Parking Garage, located at 302 Trent Drive. For a map showing the location of the parking garage, please click here.

About the speakers

Gilbert Abotisem Abiiro is a full time lecturer/researcher in the Department of Planning, University for Development Studies, Ghana. He is a young Ghanaian researcher with a keen interest in developing a revered career in health policy and systems research. Gilbert holds a Doctor of Human Science degree in Public Health from the University of Heidelberg, Germany; a Master of Public Health (Specializing in Health Economics) degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa; and a Bachelor of Arts (Integrated Development Studies) degree from the University for Development Studies, Ghana. Gilbert has over eight years of research experience in health economics, health policy and health systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

Kurfi Abubakar is a medical doctor with a Master’s degree in Public Health and MBA in International Health Care Management. He is presently an Assistant General Manager and Head of the International Collaboration Divisions in the Planning, Research and Monitoring Department of the Nigerian National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). His major responsibility is to coordinate and implement interventions with donors and implementing partners in order to advance the course of UHC in Nigeria, in addition Kurfi also convene health and social science research under the NHIS with a focus on strengthening the health financing system in order to improve the functioning of the health system.

Hampus Holmer is a physician-researcher interested in the intersection of health, politics and economics. At Duke, he will study the implementation of evidence-based policy solutions addressing leading non-communicable disease risk factors, particularly in the context of rapid transitions in demography, disease burden and domestic and development financing across low-, middle- and high-income countries. Before coming to Duke, he worked as a primary care physician in a socioeconomically disadvantaged area in Sweden. Hampus holds a medical degree and a PhD in global health and surgery from Lund University. He previously worked for the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health of Rwanda and the WHO Sierra Leone country office. Hampus is a Fulbright Commission Visiting Scholar and Swedish Research Council International Postdoc, with a dual appointment as a postdoc at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, where he currently leads the cross-campus undergraduate elective course in global health.

Daniel Ogbuabor is a Nigerian physician, public health specialist, health economist, public administrator, parliamentarian, teacher and researcher. He holds a PhD in health economics, management and policy. He is a senior lecturer in the Department of Health Administration and Management, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus; as well as a Member, Enugu State Conflict Resolution Committee. As a Member of Parliament, he chaired House Committee on Health in Enugu State House of Assembly in Nigeria for 8 years. He was also technical specialist in Enugu’s Partnership for Transforming Health System; and Medical Advisor to German Leprosy and TB Relief Association in Nigeria. Moreover, he served as a Member of Governing Council of Institute of Management and Technology; and Chairman, Isi-Uzo District Health Board in Enugu State, Nigeria.  Dr Ogbuabor has 11 peer-reviewed journal articles and 15 conference papers. At Duke, Daniel’s research will compare Nigeria’s and India’s approaches towards universal health coverage.

Tolulope Oladele is a medical graduate of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. She completed a residency program in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria graduating as a Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons, (Obstetrics & Gynaecology). She has a diploma in International Health and Policy Evaluation from Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands and a Masters of Health Econiomics and Policy from the University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. Presently she works as an Assistant Director, Health Sector Response Support Division, Department of Community Prevention Care Services at the National Agency for the Control of AIDS.

Gavin Yamey is the director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health. The Center is an innovative policy lab that addresses critical challenges in financing and delivering global health.